Stricter competition supervision
BGH enables stricter competition supervision for Apple
German competitive keepers have been targeting large digital groups for a long time. The BGH has now examined a decision by the Federal Cartel Office for Apple – and has no objections.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has confirmed that the US technology company Apple has an outstanding cross-market importance for competition. The WEG is therefore clear for the Federal Cartel Office to ban the group certain business practices in a second step, which from the point of view of antitrust keepers endanger the competition. (Az. KVB 61/23)
In 2023, the Bundeskartellamt found that Apple has a significant extent on multi -page markets on the basis of a new legal regulation and that the company has a predominant cross -market importance for competition. The company filed a complaint against this statement in Karlsruhe. The BGH’s cartel senate rejected the complaint on Tuesday in the first and last instance.
Since a reform of the law against restrictions on competition (GWB) 2021, the cartel office has been easier to act against large digital companies that are significant for competition across borders of various market areas. In a first step, the authority states regardless of a concrete violation that a group has an outstanding cross -market importance. In the second step, the antitrust office can then prohibit behavior -endangering behaviors.
dpa
Source: Stern
