Indeed, dear readers, there are a lot of news out there: The European Court supports the Commission in its quest against Google. The UK CMA tells Facebook to sell Giphy. The Bundeskartellamt, in a quite different dimension, opposed the acquisition of „Ostthüringer Zeitung“, a regional newspaper in the Gera/Jena area (while we are waiting for the first section 19a-decisions). The new German „traffic lights coalition“ has ambitious plans for EU and German competition law reform, now under the direction of a Green minister for economics and climate. Jonathan Kanter is the new strongman in the US DoJ. The Digital Markets Act took essential hurdles in the Brussels legislative process. The German Federal Supreme Court adds ever more Roman numbers to decisions on damages claims in the trucks cartel and the „Kartell der Schienenfreunde“ (we are at Schienenkartell VI so now in decision names). Andreas Mundt has announced to step down as Bundeskartellamt President, taking up a position as „Head of EU Affairs“ for Meta after a short cooling period. Okay, we made that last one up (but it is not so far from some developments at DG COMP…). If we started to write on all this, we were probably still around next year, locked into the D’Kart production ecosystem. But since we had been locked up for long enough (or not long enough, as it turns out now) we decided to break free from all these news and instead focus on the really important things. And the one really important thing in December each year is:

The D’Kart Antitrust Advent Calendar!

You rightly imagine a fanfare at this point and you rightly have that exciting taste of lovely cookies on your tongue! (If not yet – please watch this fantastic video of the Bundeskartellamt’s very own music band „The Trust Sentinels“ that we once presented in our antitrust advent calendar 2018!) The Advent Calendar is a German tradition that we cherish in December: Every day in the run-up to what we celebrate as Christmas, German children are allowed to open a new box – depending on their parents‘ style of education either filled with sweets & chocolate or with, well, other „treats“ („Today, I have a poem for you to read…“).

In the past years, we had asked for 24 contributions from the community, and it was thrilling to read how different people from different countries looked back on the months. This year, we have something new in our festive season counter: We learned from our dear friends in the Silicon Valley that „gamification“ is important to keep users glued to the screen. So this year, for the first time ever, we present an antitrust quiz – one question each day in the run-up to 25/12! 24 days to show that you are a pro and know everything from the competition world! So, come back every day, press on the „Adventskalender“ button at the top of the screen and enjoy your daily treat of wisdom!

We promise to keep you up to date in other matters as well – and we hope you stay with us in months to come! Enjoy our little daily quiz and take care!

Here is the essential link: D’Kart Antitrust Advent Calendar

Rupprecht Podszun and the team of the D’Kart blog