Dive Brief:

• Chiquita Brands International has issued a statement saying that the European Union does, in fact, have a say in whether or not the banana company can merge with Ireland's Fyffes. 
• Chiquita now says the merger will move forward, pending regulatory approval from the European Commission. 
• When the merger was first announced in March, Chiquita claimed that the deal did not meet the legal threshold to trigger an automatic review by European regulators. 

Dive Insight:

This is a bit of a strange one. It's puzzling that Chiquita was under the impression that it could merge with an Irish company and move its headquarters to Europe without E.U. support. It's also unclear as to what has changed to alter the company's position.

The statement from the two companies makes a cryptic reference to a "third party" that suggested the proposed merger did, in fact, require regulatory approval. Perhaps that third party was a lawyer or consultant brought in to facilitate the transaction. If so, his or her fees are money well-spent.