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Proceedings against large digital companies
Section 19a of the German Competition Act (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen – GWB), the new tool for monitoring threats to competition posed by large digital companies, entered into force in 2021. Since then, the Bundeskartellamt has initiated a number of proceedings against Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook/Meta and Microsoft and has already achieved several improvements.
The Bundeskartellamt had previously already conducted many landmark proceedings in the digital sector, including the abuse control proceeding against Facebook based on which the authority prohibited Facebook from combining user data collected from various sources without the user’s voluntary consent. Further proceedings were also conducted against Amazon and online hotel platforms.
Extended abuse control of digital companies
Proceedings against Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook/Meta and Microsoft
In 2021 the 10th amendment to the German Competition Act equipped the Bundeskartellamt with a new tool in the area of extended abuse control of large digital companies (Section 19a GWB). Based on this provision the authority can prohibit companies which are of paramount significance for competition across markets from engaging in certain anti-competitive practices. This enables the Bundeskartellamt to intervene even more effectively and at an earlier stage.
Click here for an overview of the proceedings conducted under Section 19a GWB (last updated: April 2024).
Two-stage examination
In a first step the Bundeskartellamt examines whether a company is of paramount significance for competition across markets. Such a position of power has already been established for Meta/Facebook, Alphabet/Google, Amazon and Apple. The decisions against Amazon and Apple are pending before court. Whether Microsoft is of paramount significance across markets is currently being assessed by the Bundeskartellamt (last updated: January 2024).
In a second step the authority can prohibit anti-competitive practices, such as the self-preferencing of a company’s own services or the “penetration” of markets by means that are not based on fair competition.
So far, the Bundeskartellamt has already initiated proceedings against certain practices of Meta/Facebook, Alphabet/Google, Apple and Amazon based on the new provisions applicable to digital companies. In some cases, concrete improvements have already been achieved, for example, in the case of Google’s data processing, Google News Showcase and Meta’s “Quest 2” VR headsets (last updated: October 2023).
More information on the new tool under Section 19a GWB is available here