The Bundeskartellamt and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) have laid the foundations for a continuous cooperation in the area of digital consumer protection. The two authorities will pool their competences and expertise in future for the benefit of consumers. The two presidents of the authorities, Andreas Mundt and Arne Schönbohm, today signed a declaration of intent to this effect in Bonn. Apart from the continuous exchange of information, the cooperation also envisages mutual assistance in the tasks relating to consumer protection.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “This cooperation offers an ideal opportunity given the complementary nature of the tasks of our two authorities. Both the BSI and the Bundeskartellamt have competences in the sphere of digital consumer protection. Both authorities intend to ensure that the advantages of digitalisation actually benefit and do not disadvantage con-sumers. Whereas the BSI‘s main focus is on cyber security, the Bun-deskartellamt keeps a close watch on competition problems and practices to the detriment of consumers, especially in the digital economy. We intend to continue and further extend our productive exchange which already occasion-ally takes place at the working level. This will help our authorities carry out their tasks for the consumers' benefit.”

Arne Schönbohm, BSI President: “As the federal cyber security authority we ensure secure digitalisation in Germany. The Bundeskartellamt and the BSI are united in the same goal: We want digitalisation to benefit people and not be used against consumers, e.g. by cyber criminals. This requires a close co-operation between the two authorities in order to integrate as closely as pos-sible our joint expertise in consumer protection and the respective special skills: The BSI’s operative cyber security knowhow and the Bun-deskartellamt's knowledge in the examination of digital markets. This will allow for more targeted market investigations, and, with a view to manufac-turers, we will be able to jointly place greater emphasis on the “security by design” principle in Germany.”

Since 2017 the Bundeskartellamt has exercised competences in the area of economic consumer protection. It conducts sector inquiries where there is a reasonable suspicion that consumer law provisions have been severely violated. Here the focus is on issues which affect consumers' daily lives. In this context the Bundeskartellamt has already conducted sector inquiries into comparison websites, smart TVs and online user reviews.

BSI is the federal cyber security authority which ensures secure digitalisation in Germany. For several years the BSI has intensified its efforts in consumer protection to increase consumer awareness, warn them of security risks and advise them on the secure use of information technology, and to assist the competent authorities in protecting consumers’ security interests against manufacturers and service providers. The cooperation between the two authorities will be conducted in compliance with the legal requirements, in particular as regards the protection of official secrets, business and trade secrets as well as data protection provisions