Tetra Laval, the privately-owned Swedish packaging company, is prepared to make a second appeal to the European Commission to take control of any sale timetable for Sidel, the French packaging company Tetra bought last year.

The Commission vetoed Tetra's €1.7bn ($1.5bn) cash takeover of Sidel last October after the deal had completed, citing the antitrust risk that it would create in the liquid food packaging market.