In recent years, Germany, like other European Union Member States, has seen various initiatives to address challenges to competition law by the digital economy. The Bundeskartellamt (BKartA) conducted administrative procedures against online hotel portals and against Facebook. In 2017, a number of amendments to the German Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB) came into force. Further amendments can be expected. In 2018, an expert report on “Modernizing the law on abuse of market power” for the German Ministry for Economic Affairs was submitted. The article briefly summarizes the main recommendations of the export report for legislative action.

Read this chapter in Shearman & Sterling’s 2019 Antitrust Annual Report, “Germany: Modernizing the Law on Abuse of Market Power for the Digital Economy.”