Canon is facing a fine of up to 10% of annual revenues from the European Commission for jumping the gun on its deal to acquire Toshiba’s medical imaging business.
The EC is calling Canon out for completing its $6 billion acquisition of the Toshiba unit before getting approval. Canon reported (PDF) $29.3 billion in sales during fiscal 2016. While Canon may have to cough up a $2.9 billion penalty, the European Union said in a statement that its investigation will not affect its approval of the merger, which was given in September 2016.
The commission said Canon used a two-step “warehousing” deal to take over Toshiba Medical Systems before securing approval for the merger.