(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission on Thursday gave the green light to the purchase by Britain's Imperial Tobacco of Franco-Spanish competitor Altadis.

Citing its fair competition rules, the EU's executive Commission said the clearance was conditional on the British company giving up some of its rolling and pipe tobacco and cigar brands, which it had agreed to.

"In light of this commitment, the Commission has concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition."

Imperial Tobacco will pay 12.8 billion euros (18.2 billion dollars) for the maker of Gauloise cigarettes. The amount comes to 16.2 billion euros if Altadis' debt is taken into consideration.

The EU's executive body said the new entity would have had too large a stranglehold on the markets for rolling tobacco in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain; in pipe tobacco in Finland and France, and cigars in Greece.

In each case Imperial Tobacco has agreed to give up one or several brands in order to appease Brussels' competition concerns.

The Commission said that in the area of cigarettes the merged entity would continue to be faced with several powerful and efficient competitors, such as Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco.

In buying Altadis, Imperial Tobacco will become the fourth biggest tobacco company in the world, after Altria (Philip Morris), BAT and Japan Tobacco.

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