Bundeskartellamt presents its Activity Report for 2019/20 and its Annual Report for 2020/21

23.06.2021

The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Andreas Mundt, has today presented the authority’s report on its activities in 2019/20 and its “2020/21 Annual Report”.

Protecting competition during the Covid-19 crisis

Andreas Mundt: “The protection of competition is indispensable even in times of crisis. However, protecting competition also means providing companies with a possibility to cooperate where this is useful and necessary. Competition law has proven to be extremely flexible in this regard. From the automotive industry to initiatives for vaccination equipment, the Bundeskartellamt could be contacted in an unbureaucratic manner for guidance on ways of crisis-related cooperation in line with competition law.”

Focus on the digital economy

Some developments in the economy were further accelerated by the pandemic. This holds especially true for the power of large digital players. The digital economy was a central area of the Bundeskartellamt’s work also in the past two years.
Andreas Mundt: “We have been very active in this area for more than a decade and have already successfully concluded several proceedings against large internet companies. Since the beginning of this year, we have a new competition law tool. We can now act even more effectively against the abuse of market power by large digital companies and on this basis, we have initiated proceedings against Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple in the past five months.”

On 19 January 2021, the 10th Amendment to the German Competition Act (GWB) came into force. A key element of the amendments to the GWB is aimed at so-called undertakings of paramount significance for competition across markets. The new provisions are set forth in Section 19a GWB and are intended to enable the Bundeskartellamt to impose mandatory conduct requirements on such companies. In addition, the provisions for the traditional control of abusive conduct were specified in more detail and internet-specific criteria were added.

Cartel prosecution

In 2020, the Bundeskartellamt imposed fines amounting to around 349 million euros on a total of 19 companies and 24 individuals. The sectors concerned were steel and aluminium forging, the manufacture of manhole covers and gully tops, and the wholesale of plant protection products. 13 companies informed the Bundeskartellamt about infringements in their sector by making use of the authority’s leniency programme; further tip-offs were also received from other sources. Due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was temporarily not possible to carry out dawn raids in 2020. After putting in place a comprehensive safety concept, dawn raids could be carried out again – at least in reduced numbers.

Andreas Mundt: “We invest many resources in cartel prosecution. It remains a key focus of the Bundeskartellamt’s work. Cartels harm the economy and consumers because of artificially increased prices, inferior quality and restrained innovation.”

Merger control

In 2020, the Bundeskartellamt examined around 1,200 notified merger projects. Nine of these mergers were closely examined in second phase proceedings: Two merger projects were abandoned by the parties in the course of the ongoing examination (Raiffeisen Kassel/Raiffeisen Köln; Edgewell/Harry’s). In three cases (XXXLutz/Tessner including Roller; Kaufland/Real and Vue/Greater Union) clearance was only granted subject to conditions. Four cases were cleared without conditions following in-depth examinations.

The Bundeskartellamt has so far had to deal with the divestiture of the stores of the food retailer Real in three separate proceedings. It has been decided that the medium-sized retailer Globus may acquire 25 stores. Kaufland (up to 92 stores) and Edeka (up to 72 stores) were granted clearance only subject to conditions to ensure competition on procurement markets (relationship between retailers and their manufacturers and suppliers). A large number of stores could not be acquired due to the authority’s competition law concerns regarding the local shopping situation and the choices for consumers.

Andreas Mundt: “Effective merger control is the most powerful instrument we have to prevent too much market power falling into the hands of only a few companies. We see particularly strong market concentration in the digital economy. Further takeovers and mergers can cause tipping in the market or create ecosystems which are almost incontestable for competitors. Stringent merger control is therefore indispensable.”

Public Procurement Tribunals and Competition Register

In 2020, more than 120 applications were filed with the Federal Public Procurement Tribunals for the initiation of review proceedings. Most of the cases concerned the award of contracts for public supplies and services, followed by construction contracts. This year, the focus was on contracts in the areas of IT hardware and software, employment services, and defence and security.

The Bundeskartellamt has successfully launched the Federal Competition Register for Public Procurement, which is intended to help fight economic crime and competition law infringements. In early 2021, the Bundeskartellamt commenced operating the Competition Register starting with the registration of the contracting entities authorised to consult the register and the authorities obliged to communicate data. In future, public contracting authorities can check in a single electronic search whether a company has committed violations of the law which might lead to its exclusion from public award procedures.

Andreas Mundt: “The Competition Register is to help fight economic crime and antitrust violations. This new transparency will strengthen the preventive effect of criminal and competition law.”

The “2020/21 Annual Report” provides an informative overview of the Bundeskartellamt’s activities from 2020 to May 2021 (only in German).

By publishing the “2019/20 Activity Report” the authority has fulfilled its reporting duties to the German Bundestag. The report is submitted to the parliament for information and debate every two years (only in German)

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