On 14 January 2021, the German parliament passeda Act against Restraints of Competition. The law is intended to make competition laws fit for the digital age. The justification of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology refers to the fact that digitalisation brings with it a change in the economic balance of power and thus presents competition policy with new challenges. The importance of data as a value-creation factor is increasing. The new law is intended to provide clear guidelines in competition law for large digital companies with cross-market significance. This is to ensure that prosperity is created through competition in digital markets. This law should help the economy, but also consumers, to be competitive. The platform operators, who collect and evaluate user data, have so far been allowed to restrict access to customer groups for other companies and thus hinder innovation.

What's new?

In future it will be possible for the german authorities to prohibit certain anti-competitive conduct on digital markets by platform companies with a cross-market importance. You can find all the details in the text of the law.