STOCKHOLM, Jan 16, 2002 (Reuters) - Swedish family-owned packaging group Tetra Laval said on Wednesday it would lodge an appeal at the European Court against the EU Commission's decision in October to ban its takeover of French rival Sidel SA. Tetra Laval said in a statement that the Commission had not shown how the 1.7 billion euro ($1.50 billion) merger "will lead to the alleged negative conglomerate effects resulting from the parties' presence in the carton packaging and in the PET packaging equipment markets." Sidel is the leading manufacturer of machines making plastic PET bottles. The Commission had also failed to demonstrate credibly why remedies proposed by Tetra Laval did not eliminate its concerns, Tetra Laval said, without elaborating. In its rejection of the deal, the EU's antitrust watchdog said Tetra Laval's Tetra Pak unit would tighten its grip on the liquid container market where it is the global market leader. Tetra Laval's dominance in carton packaging combined with Sidel's leading position in PET plastic packaging equipment would be too much, the Commission found. Tetra Laval at the time criticised the Commission's ruling in harsh terms, saying it was taking the Commission further away from the international mainstream on merger policy. Sidel shares traded unchanged at 50.00 euros at 1435 GMT. EU Commission objections thwarted a record number of attempted mergers last year, three of these involving Swedish companies. Banks SEB and Swedbank pulled out of their planned link-up in September, saying terms set by the Commission would eliminate all expected synergies. Early in 2001 the Commission red-lighted Swedish forest industry group SCA's takeover of Finnish peer Metsa-Tissue.