Commission clears Snowhawk, Ares and Macquarie data centre deal unconditionally

The European Commission decided on 6 November 2026 not to oppose the concentration involving Snowhawk, Ares, Macquarie, Data Realty Group and Prime Data Centers, declaring it compatible with the internal market. The decision is recorded in the Official Journal of the European Union of 12 November 2026, in notice C/2026/6022, under Case M.12298. It rests on Article 6(1)(b) of the EU Merger Regulation, the first-phase route used when a transaction raises no serious doubts.

The decision and its legal basis

The notice, headed “Non-opposition to a notified concentration”, states that the Commission adopted the decision on 6 November 2026 and based it on Article 6(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings, the EC Merger Regulation, published in OJ L 24 of 29 January 2004, p. 1.

The text is marked “(Text with EEA relevance)”, so the assessment covers the European Economic Area dimension of the file. The notice records no conditions, commitments or remedies attached to the approval: the Commission simply declines to oppose the operation and declares it compatible with the internal market.

Where the full text can be read

The full text of the decision is available only in English and will be made public once cleared of any business secrets it may contain. According to the notice, it will be available:

• in the merger section of the “Competition policy” website of the Commission (competition-cases.ec.europa.eu/search), which allows searches by company name, case number, date and sectoral indexes;
• in electronic form on EUR-Lex, the online point of access to European Union law, under document number 32026M12298.

The notice carries the European Legislation Identifier http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/6022/oj and runs to a single page of the C series.

A week of data-centre and industrial merger notices

The clearance appeared alongside other competition notices in the same stretch of the Official Journal. On 9 November 2026, notice C/2026/5945 in Case M.12588 recorded that the Commission received notification on 28 October 2026 of a proposed concentration involving IGNIS P2X, Acciona Data Centers, Acciona Desarrollos y Proyectos Renovables, IGNIS Data Epta and Estribo Solar. That file covers joint control of two Spanish vehicles, one developing a data centre in Segovia and the other a photovoltaic plant built to supply its energy; the Commission marked it a candidate for the simplified procedure and set a ten-day window, from publication, for third-party observations.

The same issue of 12 November 2026 also carries notice C/2026/6016 in Case M.12661 (Veritas / Bodycote), another first-phase non-opposition.

Why it matters

For readers following digital infrastructure, the notice confirms that a five-name concentration — one whose case title places Prime Data Centers and Data Realty Group among the parties — has passed EU merger review at first phase, with no conditions recorded and no in-depth investigation opened.

The practical consequence is procedural but consequential: the operation can proceed, while the reasoning behind the clearance becomes readable only once the confidential version is released, first on the Commission’s case database and then on EUR-Lex. Until then, the Official Journal notice is the only public trace of the decision, and it settles the essentials — date, legal basis, outcome and the reference under which the full text will be filed.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C series, No C/2026/6022, 12 November 2026, notices, p. 1 (official reference: C/2026/6022; Case M.12298; EUR-Lex 32026M12298).