Working Group on Competition Economics discusses the implementation of the 11th Amendment to the German Competition Act and current Bundeskartellamt proceedings

The eighth meeting of the Working Group on Competition Economics has taken place today at the Bundeskartellamt. Members of the Bundeskartellamt discussed topical issues of competition economics with economics experts conducting research in this field.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “A regular exchange with academic experts is of great importance for our work as it keeps us up to date with the latest economic research. One of the areas of focus at today’s discussion with renowned economic experts was the implementation of the 11th Amendment to the German Competition Act. If, after a sector inquiry, we find that significant and continuing malfunctions of competition exist, we now have a new instrument which enables us to address such cases. There are, however, strict requirements for imposing the individual measures provided for in the Act. Against this backdrop, and apart from providing direct feedback on our current case practice, the Working Group meeting is also an opportunity for us to receive valuable inspiration for addressing the challenges we face in the future.”

Further topics discussed by the Working Group included the demonstration of anti-competitive effects of vertical agreements in the Bundeskartellamt’s Stihl proceeding as well as the criteria applied in the assessment of abusive exclusionary conduct based on the example of the Deutsche Bahn proceeding. The group also discussed competitive assessment in the food retail sector based on the Müller/Campina merger case.

The following academics took part in today's conference: Prof. Dr Tomaso Duso (German Institute for Economic Research, DIW Berlin), Prof. Dr Wolfgang Kerber (University of Marburg), Prof. Volker Nocke, Ph.D. (University of Mannheim), Prof. Dr Markus Reisinger (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management) and Prof. Achim Wambach, Ph.D. (Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim).