Britain on Friday launched a regulatory probe into a planned takeover of UK online food delivery service Just Eat by Dutch peer Takeaway.com. The Dutch company earlier this month won a battle for Just Eat, beating a hostile bid by tech firm Prosus to create one of the world's largest food delivery platforms.

In a brief statement, Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog said it would investigate whether the deal "may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services".

A combination of the two firms would create a delivery service worth around £9.0 billion ($11.8 billion, 10.7 billion euros) capable of competing against Britain-based Deliveroo and US-owned Uber Eats.