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Author: Gast

Dirty laundry in the working group – cleaning instructions from the Federal Court of Justice to the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court

Dirty laundry in the working group – cleaning instructions from the Federal Court of Justice to the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court

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PDF Version: Click here Suggested Citation: Heuer/Woeste, DKartJ 2023, 3-5 Shortly before Christmas, the Federal Court of Justice (FCJ) passed judgement on the follow-on lawsuit regarding the so-called “drugstore products cartel”. It had been eagerly awaited not only by the antitrust world but also by the creditors of the insolvent drugstore chain Anton Schlecker e.K. In the ruling, the FCJ expressly clarifies that in the event of an anti-competitive information exchange on price behavior, there is a factual presumption that…

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Conference Debriefing (34): Working (!) Session of the Studienvereinigung

Conference Debriefing (34): Working (!) Session of the Studienvereinigung

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On 8 December, the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht, the legendary group of German-speaking competition lawyers, met for its working session in Bonn. This year, the traditional meet-and-greet with prominent figures from the nearby Federal Cartel Office and also from far away Berlin was dominated by the German reform projects. Dr. Sascha Dethof reports. “Working session”, “there is work to be done today”, “this will be a real working session” – Chairman Ingo Brinker (Gleiss Lutz) made it clear in his introduction that he expected…

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“Cartel damages proceedings run too long in Germany!”

“Cartel damages proceedings run too long in Germany!”

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Those who follow cartel damages proceedings in German courts are sometimes stunned: Do these proceedings really have to take so long? Does every detail really have to be questioned in such a way? Prof. Dr. Johannes Heyers says: Things are being artificially complicated here – with first instance courts and the legal profession taking a fair share of blame. A wake-up call. The plea that antitrust damages proceedings “run too long in Germany” (as Tilman Makatsch rightly put it in…

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AGENDA 2025: More Sustainability in Merger Control?

AGENDA 2025: More Sustainability in Merger Control?

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This article is part of the D’Kart Spotlights: AGENDA 2025, in which experts from academia and practice comment on aspects of the Competition Policy Agenda presented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The contributions already published can be found here. Merger control is often not dealt with at all or only as a marginal issue in the sustainability debate in antitrust law. In this article, Johanna Welsch takes a look at this part of the BMWK’s…

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AGENDA 2025: A Small Group Of Thoughtful Consumers Can Change The World?

AGENDA 2025: A Small Group Of Thoughtful Consumers Can Change The World?

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This article is part of the D’Kart Spotlights: AGENDA 2025, in which experts from academia and practice comment on aspects of the Competition Policy Agenda presented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The contributions already published can be found here. This contribution to the D-Kart Spotlights: AGENDA 2025 is again concerned with the hot topic of sustainability agreements. Mariya Serafimova takes a look at the developments in the european antitrust community. With the rise of the…

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AGENDA 2025: The Digital Markets Act and Section 19a GWB

AGENDA 2025: The Digital Markets Act and Section 19a GWB

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This article is part of the D’Kart Spotlights: AGENDA 2025, in which experts from academia and practice comment on aspects of the Competition Policy Agenda presented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The contributions already published can be found here. Section 19a is undoubtedly the most important piece of the 10th amendment to the Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB). Gunnar Wolf and Niklas Brüggemann present their view on the relationship of this law to the…

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AGENDA 2025: Time for a Comeback? The Case for Structural Antitrust

AGENDA 2025: Time for a Comeback? The Case for Structural Antitrust

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This article is part of the D’Kart Spotlights: AGENDA 2025, in which experts from academia and practice comment on aspects of the Competition Policy Agenda presented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The contributions already published can be found here. Many have hoped that big companies would be disciplined by competition. For Dominik Piétron the opposite is true. Corporations have become increasingly powerful and developed new tools to impose private arbitrariness. To effectively protect society from…

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AGENDA 2025: Less competition for more sustainability?

AGENDA 2025: Less competition for more sustainability?

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This article is part of the D’Kart Spotlights: AGENDA 2025, in which experts from academia and practice comment on aspects of the Competition Policy Agenda presented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The contributions already published can be found here. In our spotlight series about AGENDA 2025, several authors have expressed their views about competition and sustainability. Felix Rhiel and Frank Schlütter do the same, but with a focus on risks associated with industry cooperation. “what…

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AGENDA 2025: Distortions of competition from third countries: How can fair global competition be strengthened?

AGENDA 2025: Distortions of competition from third countries: How can fair global competition be strengthened?

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This article is part of the D’Kart Spotlights: AGENDA 2025, in which experts from academia and practice comment on aspects of the Competition Policy Agenda presented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The contributions already published can be found here. According to its competition policy agenda, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action wants to tackle distortions of competition from countries outside the European Union. Oliver Budzinski and Annika Stöhr shed some light on…

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Conglomerate foreclosure in the metaverse

Conglomerate foreclosure in the metaverse

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The concept of the metaverse has received a lot of attention over the last year. Some assume it will revolutionize the way we live, others believe that it merely constitutes the mainstreamization of video gaming. This uncertain outcome has not discouraged undertakings to invest substantially in the metaverse. These investments, accompanied by the increasing concentration in gaming markets, warrant a closer antitrust discussion of the metaverse. Whilst interoperable platforms and ecosystems tend to provide significant value to consumers, their layered markets are increasingly challenging for antitrust law…

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