Competition
Bundeskartellamt imposed higher fines
If actual competitors do a common cause and form a cartel, the Bonn authority calls on the scene: it wants to protect consumers from illegal price increases.
Germany’s highest competitive guardian asked companies to pay more than before because of forbidden agreements last year. The Federal Cartel Office in Bonn said. It was about the areas of protective clothing, telecommunications and network technology.
Cartel agreements, for example via prices, are generally prohibited: they inhibit the competition, which leads to the customer at higher prices. In the first half of 2025, the information has so far been imposed on fines of over ten million euros.
It was just under three million euros in 2023. However, one cannot derive a clear trend, the values fluctuate year after year – depending on whether a larger procedure is being completed and the perpetrators are asked to pay. In 2022, fines over 24 million euros had been imposed.
Cartel office chief Andreas Mundt said that all industries have the opportunity to systematically observe the markets. “Many of the newly opened procedures were started by references to our external registration office,” said the competitive guard. This is proven to be valuable addition to the submit applications, of which 17 were received by the authority last year. Mundt said: “We don’t let up and have other big processes in the pipeline.”
dpa
Source: Stern
