The German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) has launched a sector inquiry in the provision and marketing of publicly accessible charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. According to the FCO’s president, Andreas Mundt, the FCO has received several complaints about prices and conditions at the charging stations. Read more
We are delighted to share with you our newly updated report on Foreign Investment: Rising Tides of Politics in Regulation, which reflects a swathe of recent changes to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regimes around the world against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. FDI filings have become an increasingly important piece of the regulatory jigsaw … Read more
Introduction On 23 June 2020, the German Federal Supreme Court (FSC) overturned the temporary injunction granted by the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf in August 2019, which suspended the German Federal Cartel Office’s (FCO’s) landmark abuse of dominance decision against Facebook, pending final determination of the company’s appeal (see our earlier blog post). In its February … Read more
Germany is continuing to tighten its FDI regime: A current amendment to the German Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (AWV) brings new filing obligations for several case groups. The AWV amendment clearly focuses on the health sector as a direct consequence of the COVID-19-pandemic. It aims to contribute to the permanent maintenance of a functioning … Read more
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has drafted an amendment to the German Act against Restraints on Competition (ARC) that will, inter alia, significantly extend the deadlines for Phase I and II proceedings under the German merger control regime in reaction to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This will have some important practical … Read more
Germany is planning to further tighten its FDI regime and screen investments by investors from outside the EU more closely. More acquisitions of German companies will be subject to a notification obligation, and a standstill obligation will prohibit an execution of the deal before the Ministry gave his approval, according to a draft amendment to … Read more
Our newly updated report on Foreign Investment: Rising Tides of Politics in Regulation is now available. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) filings are an increasingly important piece of the regulatory jigsaw for cross-border M&A. Against a background of mounting protectionist rhetoric, countries traditionally open to investment (such as the US, UK and Australia) are moving towards … Read more
Competition law/algorithms has been a hot topic of debate amongst practitioners and enforcers for a while, and now two of Europe’s top antitrust enforcers, the Autorité de la Concurrence and the Bundeskartellamt, have joined forces to analyse and publish a report on the potential competition law risks relating to pricing algorithms and their potential contribution … Read more
On 9 September 2019, the German “Commission Competition Law 4.0” (Commission) submitted its report “A New Competition Framework for the Digital Economy” (English summary available here) to the Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy. The Commission was set up by the minister in September 2018 and mandated with developing recommendations for the further development of European … Read more
