{"id":2523,"date":"2019-08-02T13:51:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T11:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2019-08-02T15:06:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T13:06:32","slug":"ssnippets-32-traffic-jam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/blog\/2019\/08\/02\/ssnippets-32-traffic-jam\/","title":{"rendered":"SSNIPpets (32) \u2013 Traffic Jam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many antitrust addicts want to go on holiday or\nwant to get back from holiday and are stuck in traffic jams. Please do not\nworry, there is still enough stuff to read, and Rupprecht Podszun brings it to\nyou through the emergency vehicle lane. So, give a tablet to your kids in the\nbackseat, let your partner steer the wheel, and enjoy our antitrust law Summer\nSSNIPpets – small but significant news, information and pleasantries, our pet\nproject!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Infrastructure for competition<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is High Season in Salzburg, Festival time, the place is crowded by the rich, the famous and also some intellectuals, and apart from assembling for some Mozart opera, some of them come together at the Convoco-Forum<\/a>. Corinne Flick hosts Convoco, she is a lawyer, holds a PhD in literature and belongs to all three categories named above. This year, her guests discussed the “Standing of Europe in the New Imperial World Order\u201d. One panel discussed competitiveness. Monika Schnitzer, an economics professor from Munich and a member of the German Commission drafting reform proposals for European competition law (\u201cKommission Wettbewerbsrecht 4.0\u201d) addressed her first question to Roberto Viola, Director General at the European Commission for pretty much everything digital (and he is a blogger!<\/a>); he is the Laitenberger of DG CONNECT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schnitzer:<\/em> \u201eWhat percentage of the EU budget goes into agriculture and what percentage goes into digital, and do you think the EU sets the right priorities?\u201d <\/p>

Viola<\/em>: \u201cAbout one third of the budget goes into agriculture, and 3 % of the budget into digital.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The\naudience had a good and desperate laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same\npanel, Stefan Oschmann, CEO of pharmaceutical company Merck, made it crystal\nclear what he expects from politicians so that European companies are on a\nlevel playing field: It is not industrial policy in an old-fashioned way, but a\npolicy that fosters the digital infrastructure. Europe needs its own cloud, the\ndevelopment of microchips with AI and the promotion of supercomputers. These\nare the streets, bridges and railways of our time. Otherwise, European\ncompanies will be marginalised by US and Chinese competition. Director General\nViola (who made a very good impression on me) fully agrees with Oschmann. So,\nwell, let\u2019s do — something!<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Learning from Microsoft<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Part of creating\nthat infrastructure for competitiveness is to tame big tech. It seems to me\nthat there is consensus among German managers in this regard. The US steps up\npressure on GAFA, too. The New York Times<\/a> reports that Chris Hughes, a former\nroommate of Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard and a co-founder of Facebook, went to\nsee enforcers at the antitrust authorities, together with Scott Hemphill (New\nYork University) and Tim Wu (Columbia University), to push for tougher\nenforcement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nEconomist recommends to Zuckerberg, Bezos & Co. to learn from Microsoft\u2019s experience<\/a>. The former Number One enemy of the\nantitrust authorities has recently managed to become the most valuable company\nin the world without being too visible in antitrust map. One advice taken from\nthe Microsoft saga of the early 21st<\/sup> century: \u201eThird, work with\nregulators rather than try to outwit or overwhelm them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Infrastructure for justice<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Safeguarding\nthe infrastructure is also an issue for the judiciary. The President of the\nStuttgart Regional Court (\u201cLandgericht\u201d), Andreas Singer, called on politics to\nget more staff. His court is sort of paralyzed by lawsuits directed against Daimler,\nthe motor company. Of course, the focus is on that Diesel issue, but Singer\nalso provided impressive figures<\/a> on antitrust law: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are currently around 250 lawsuits pending concerning the trucks cartel. (\u2026) In the past 15 years, only 1-2 such antitrust claims had been filed. The Stuttgart Regional Court has already handed down more than 20 judgments on the trucks cartel in 2018 and 2019 alone, despite the process-related unavoidable long duration of proceedings.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The company shown here is the most important supplier of the LG Stuttgart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\nclaimants ask for damages between 3,500 and 100 million Euros, in one case\nalone 12,500 trucks are involved, and each procurement process has to be\nexamined individually. In addition, the 30th Chamber of the court has a claim\nof 261 million Euros plus interest connected to an antitrust case on round timber.\nSome of the asserted claims date back to 1978 (Case No. 30 O 176\/19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can we\nsay to give some comfort to the Stuttgart judges? I think of Christian\nMorgenstern’s poem “The Two Roots”<\/a>. What else is there to say? Squeak.\nSquawk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


New guidelines, new regulations, new fines<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n