On 6 October 2016 the Working Group on Competition Law met in Bonn at the invitation of the Bundeskartellamt. At the conference more than 100 competition law experts discussed and exchanged views on the topic "Competition and Consumer Behaviour - conflict or coherence between consumer protection and competition law?"

Konrad Ost, Vice President of the Bundeskartellamt stated: "Competition law and consumer law often go hand in hand, especially in the digital economy. Not only can the market power of some internet companies have a huge impact on consumer interests, consumers are often in an inferior position vis-a-vis digital service providers, irrespective of their size. Consumer protection measures will only work effectively in the long term if sufficient consideration is taken of their impact on the respective market and the possibilities of the companies to react to them. If markets do not work properly to the benefit of the consumer, the most suitable solution to this can be provided by either competition law or consumer law, depending on the individual case. We should therefore always focus on both areas of law."

The Working Group on Competition Law is made up of a large number of university professors from law and economics faculties, high-ranking representatives of national and European competition authorities and ministries, as well as judges from the cartel divisions of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court and the Federal Court of Justice. For more than 40 years the group has met annually to discuss fundamental issues of competition policy.

This year's conference was chaired by Prof Dr. Ost. The meeting featured introductory statements by and a panel discussion with Prof Dr. Susanne Augenhofer, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Prof Dr. Justus Haucap, Director of the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), Prof Dr. Paul Heidhues, DICE, Prof Dr. Rupprecht Podszun, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Birgit Krueger, Head of the General Policy Division at the Bundeskartellamt. Bernadette van Buchem, Director of the Consumer Department at the Netherlands competition authority (Autoriteit Consument & Markt) gave a talk on experiences made in the Netherlands with enforcing competition law and consumer law by one and the same public authority.

Amongst other topics the Working Group discussed whether the public enforcement of consumer law should be strengthened in Germany, too. Many of the conference participants were of the opinion that the current consumer protection system, which is mainly organised under private law, has its shortcomings and enforcement deficits, e.g. with regard to the general terms and conditions of internet companies.

An intensive discussion took place on a possible institutional framework for the public enforcement of consumer rights. Some participants aired concerns that the protection of competition could suffer if competition law and consumer law enforcement were combined. Others thought that designating a clearly defined area of collective consumer interests to the Bundeskartellamt along the lines of the positive model in the Netherlands and other countries would be a useful way to supplement the existing system.