This is the D’Kart Antitrust Advent Calendar 2023! Every day in the run-up to Christmas we will open a new door for you with a question to answer. This is competition, you know, you have to perform! To help you with the answers, we generated pictures illustrating 24 key moments of the year. Since we are really cutting-edge here at Düsseldorf (and you do not expect anything less, we know) we used Artificial Intelligence to create the pictures. The magics of AI…
I was recently at the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf and followed a hearing – you may have read about it here. As we were still standing in the corridors afterwards, an employee of the Bundeskartellamt asked me whether it would be back this year… And when I recorded our podcast “Bei Anruf Wettbewerb” with Justus Haucap yesterday, he asked me on air whether it would be back this year… and both of them had anticipating eyes. And of course!…
PDF-Version: Click here Suggested Citation: Podszun, DKartJ 2023, 107-112 It’s about elderly ladies, an arrow diagram and has somethig to do with media: the German Bundeskartellamt defended a merger clearance decision before the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court – a competitor would have preferred a prohibition. Rupprecht Podszun was at the oral hearing of the 1st Cartel Senate and reports. Wednesday mornings at the OLG When lawyer Till Steinvorth is given the floor, it is 11:27 a.m. on Wednesday, 15 November…
PDF-Version: Click here Suggested Citation: Podszun, DKartJ 2023, 97-102 The 11th amendment to the German competition law act (GWB) has entered into force. The 12th amendment of the GWB is being prepared. Is GWB13 around the corner? We don’t have an answer to this question (which is not far-fetched) – but we do have the most important news of the week, compiled by Rupprecht Podszun. The knot We recently spoke to an observer of the antitrust scene in Germany who resides…
PDF-Version: Click here Suggested Citation: Klumpe, DKartJ 2023, 89-91 In Düsseldorf, the association of competition lawyers called “Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht” held a meeting to discuss litigation on cartel damages. Dr. Gerhard Klumpe, one of the most prolific German antitrust judges, was on the panel. Here he gives his impressions of the evening. Say, a lawyer, a competition economist and a judge meet at a bar table… when a story begins like this, we are either in for a good laugh or –…
PDF-Version: Click here Suggested Citation: Podszun, DKartJ 2023, 81-86 What do competition law enforcers actually talk about when they meet? We sent Rupprecht Podszun to listen in at the International Competition Network’s Annual Conference, this year in Barcelona. Here is his conference debriefing in the form of an interview, revealing – inter alia – missing film titles, a funny misunderstanding and a new topic for antitrust enforcement. Name of the event: Annual Meeting of the International Competition Network (ICN) Place &…
PDF-Version: Click here Suggested Citation: Podszun, DKartJ 2023, 76-81 What place does economics have in competition law – and especially in abuse of dominance cases? When this question is discussed in Germany, good entertainment is guaranteed. The Bundeskartellamt, the Federal Cartel Office, is not exactly notorious globally for its more economic approach. It invited the German-speaking antitrust world to the debate. The whole antitrust world? No, lawyers from law firms and companies were left out. But Rupprecht Podszun was there…
PDF-Version: Hier klicken Zitiervorschlag: Bukpiev/Zwilling, DKartJ 2023, 67-70 Auch dieses Jahr lud das Institut für Kartellrecht (IKartR) der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf zum kartellrechtlichen Doktorandenseminar. Am 11. und 12. September versammelten sich zahlreiche Namen aus der Kartellrechts-Community für einen fachlichen Austausch. Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz schwärmten voller Vorfreude nach Düsseldorf, wo sie ein spannendes Programm erwartete. Karl Bukpiev und Moritz Zwilling berichten. Der erste der beiden Tage begann dabei direkt mit einem Highlight: Nach einigen (bei dem Wetter vielleicht zu) warmen Begrüßungsworten…
PDF version: Click here Suggested Citation: Bostoen/Karg/Thepot, DKartJ 2023, 61 ASCOLA is the Academic Society for Competition Law, the global organization that brings together scholars from all over the world once a year. This year, antitrust professors and their future successors met in Athens (Greece) for the three days Olympics of Competition Law Scholarship. Herbert Hovenkamp was there – and so were Friso Bostoen (Tilburg), Madlen Karg (TU Munich) and Florence Thepot (Strasbourg). The three youngish scholars share their insights and photos here in this…
PDF version: Click here Suggested Citation: Podszun, DKartJ 2023, 54 Such a mass of competition law developments on a single day is rare: Germany is getting the “New Competition Tool”, i.e. an amendment to its competition act, the ECJ has ruled in the matter of the Federal Cartel Office vs Facebook, and the companies that see themselves as digital gatekeepers in the sense of the Digital Markets Act have reported to the European Commission. Whew. On the Fourth of July…