Today, the President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt, presented the authority’s annual report for 2015.

Digital economy

New digital products and business models have created new challenges for competition policy and competition law enforcement. In early 2015 the Bundeskartellamt set up an Internet Think Tank to take account of the growing importance of the digital economy.

Andreas Mundt: "With increasing digitalisation we are witnessing an economic revolution which is affecting all areas of life. Many issues need to be reassessed under competition law and solutions need to be found on how these can be dealt with in practice. Our key task in protecting competition, especially in the digital world, is to quickly and consistently punish the abusive practices of the big players, in order to keep the markets open for new business models."

In the last few years the Bundeskartellamt has already concluded a large number of "Internet cases". For example, it prohibited Amazon Marketplace and well-known hotel booking portals from using their so-called "best price" clauses which obliged retailers or hotels not to offer products or services cheaper elsewhere. The authority has also conducted important merger control proceedings to examine mergers between Internet platforms including real estate and dating agency portals. It is also currently investigating the online ticket retailer CTS Eventim and has opened proceedings against Facebook. In the latter case the Bundeskartellamt is following up suspicions that by violating data protection rules Facebook is abusing its possibly dominant position in the market for social networks.

The recently published working paper "Market Power of Platforms and Networks" (link to press release of 9 June 2016) gives an overview of the authority's case practice and an update on the state of economic and antitrust research.

Cartel prosecution:

During 2015 the Bundeskartellamt imposed a total of approx. 208 million euros in fines in eleven cartel cases. The fines were imposed on 45 companies and 24 individuals. The proceedings concerned various sectors, such as e.g. automotive part manufacturers, mattress manufacturers, providers of container transport services and manufacturers of prefabricated garages.

In the first half of 2016 the Bundeskartellamt imposed fines totalling around 99 million euros. The authority has also concluded its investigations against wholesalers in the sanitary, heating and air conditioning sector. In the first months of this year it also concluded nearly all its proceedings in the so-called vertical case concerning agreements on retail prices between food manufacturers and food retailers.

Andreas Mundt: "Cartel prosecution remains a key area of focus of our work. The number of cases which have already been concluded and of new cases remain high. We look at cases in both large and small sectors to raise awareness for competition law. And we take up horizontal cartels, i.e. agreements between competitors, just as much as vertical cases in which manufacturers and retailers collude to the detriment of the end consumer."

Following the so-called vertical case in the brick-and-mortar food retail sector, the Bundeskartellamt is currently preparing a practical guide to explain to companies in the sector the background, purpose and scope of the prohibition of resale price maintenance. By using practical examples it will make clear the dividing line between prohibited and admissible conduct.

Merger control

For several years the number of notified mergers has remained stable. During 2015 the Bundeskartellamt decided on 1,169 merger control cases, 13 of which were decided after an indepth examination, i.e. in the so-called second phase. One merger was prohibited (Edeka/Kaiser's Tengelmann) and another cleared only subject to conditions (car spare parts market - Wessels & Müller SE acquires Trost Auto Service Technik SE).

Andreas Mundt: "The food retail sector is highly concentrated and will certainly keep us busy in future. Apart from the four large retailers there are few remaining medium-sized competitors. At the moment we are examining plans by Rewe to gain a majority stake in Coop. Here, too, as in the Edeka/Kaiser’s Tengelmann case, we look carefully at the regional markets affected.”

In March 2016, at the request of the companies in the Edeka/Tengelmann merger case, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy granted a ministerial authorisation based on 'job preservation' and 'maintenance of workers rights' reasons and agreed to the merger. This was the ninth ministerial authorisation since this instrument came into existence. The ministerial authorisation is seldom used to take account of aspects other than effects on competition.

The 2015 Annual Report is available for download at the Bundeskartellamt's website.