The Bundeskartellamt has no objections at the current stage to the extensive cooperation plans of Berliner Morgenpost GmbH and Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH.

The two publishing houses have asked the authority to assess their planned cooperation agreement under competition law. The planned cooperation will include the joint marketing of advertising space, joint newspaper distribution, a joint call centre, joint promotion activities and possibly cooperation in procurement. The cooperation agreement will not affect the editorial offices of Berliner Morgenpost and Der Tagesspiegel.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “The publishing houses are making use of the new cooperation possibilities for newspaper publishing. These possibilities were introduced in 2017 in the last amendment to the German Competition Act.”

Since then agreements between newspaper or magazine publishers on cooperation in publishing activities are exempted from the general prohibition of cartels under Section 30(2b) of the German Competition Act, GWB, so far as they do not affect trade between the EU Member States. The exemption is based on the condition that the agreement enables the parties to strengthen their economic base. This does not apply to purely price-fixing or territorial agreements because of their lack of rationalisation efficiencies. The provision on cooperation possibilities also does not apply to editorial cooperation.