The German competition law reform sparks a lot of interest on the international stage. We have a new translation into English of the draft bill! It does not only contain new provisions on abusive practices (including an interesting rule for companies with paramount significance for competition across markets). It also proposes notification thresholds for merger control – relevant for everyone who wishes to get a deal through.

Today, D’Kart is able to provide a brand new, fresh translation of key provisions. It is partly based on the official translation of the current competition law act, partly on our own awesome handling of the English language and partly on contributions by anonymous people who thankfully shared their insights with us.

The document that you may download here also contains section 39a, a provision that had not yet been included in the leaked version of the draft bill that D’Kart had published.

In the meantime, the trade associations and the Länder were able to provide their insights in hearings at Berlin – please see Rupprecht Podszun’s report here. Also, it transpired that Judge Jürgen Kühnen from the Düsseldorf Court of Appeals wrote an interesting contribution for WuW, one of the leading competition law journals in Germany (Rupprecht Podszun would probably be less reserved regarding the position of WuW (“one of the leading…”), but then, he is an editor of it). Judge Kühnen chairs the Senate that reviews enforcement actions of the Bundeskartellamt, and so his bench will be decisive in applying section 19a. His comment in WuW, to be found online first here (and in print as of next month), deals with this very section. Kühnen sees a lot of – and possibly too many – open questions. It probably merits the attention to read between the lines – regarding the author.

The debate will go on. Once the Ministry has polished the draft, taking account of the comments from the hearings, we will see the government dealing with it in the cabinet and transferring it to the Bundesrat, the representation of the Länder, then to the Bundestag.

This is it for today. The Rhineland, where we are located, is in festive mood this weekend (even though our good vibes are – to be frank – overshadowed by the horrible attack in Hanau).

Düsseldorf is (let’s be generous:) together with Cologne the center of German carnival, and this weekend and particularly on Monday everyone is out celebrating. Turn on the volume with one of these songs, take a look at the carnival floats parading on Monday (in Düsseldorf they are always highly political) – and try to discover the Düsseldorf competition community in their costumes. It fits with our ideals: Carnival in Rhineland in its typical form today was once a mockery of the powerful, those Prussian officers with their uniforms and medals. Helau & Alaaf!