The Commerce Commission has applied to the High Court for leave to appeal the court's decision allowing Southern Cross to keep all of Aetna Health.
The commission has sought leave to take the matter to the Court of Appeal. A decision on this has been reserved.
Last month the High Court gave overturned a ruling from the commission regarding Southern Cross's takeover of Aetna. The commission twice turned down Southern Cross's application to buy all of Aetna on the grounds that it would gain a dominant market position.
However, it approved Southern Cross's third application on the provision that Southern Cross sold all of Aetna's existing policies.
The High Court ruled that Southern Cross did not have to divest the policies, saying that there were low barriers to entry in the market and that the commission had defined the market too narrowly.
The court's decision was the commission's first set back in the area of business acquisitions in almost a decade.
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