The European Commission approved on Wednesday French payment company Worldline"s WLN.PA 7.8 billion euro ($9.1 billion)acquisition of rival Ingenico INGC.PA, subject to conditions. The Commission, which oversees competition policy in the 27-nation European Union, said that the merger proposed would have reduced competition in services facilitating in-store card payments in Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg. The companies agreed to divest certain point-of-sale (POS) merchant acquiring services and POS terminal provision and management in the three countries to remove the market overlap and address the Commission’s concerns. The sector has seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions led by U.S. rivals seeking to build up their share of digital transactions.