Bereits 1999 startete das Bundeswirtschaftsministerium die Diskussion um eine Liberalisierung der Wasserversorgung in Deutschland, und mittlerweile verkaufen immer mehr Kommunen Anteile an den in ihrem Eigentum befindlichen Wasserversorgungsunternehmen an private Investoren. Für eine...

Wettbewerbspolitisch stellt sich die Frage, ob im 5er-Oligopol mit Aral, Shell, Esso, Total und Jet Binnenwettbewerb fehlt und ob dieses Oligopol wirksam Außenseiterwettbewerb ausgesetzt ist. Nach neuartigen Daten für vier Metropolen aus 2014, die auf die Marktransparenzstelle zurückgehen,...

Recent healthcare reforms have sought to increase efficiency by introducing managed care (MC) as an alternative to conventional care. This article proposes an institutional change designed to let German consumers choose between the two settings through directing payments from the Federal Health...

In contrast to the United States, Germany decided to add margin squeeze as a legal offense to German competition law. In response to this, the problems in the gasoline market have caused major debates. This paper examines the pricing strategies by gasoline retailers and discusses the...

Do we have effective competition between the gasoline's big five oligopolists (Aral, Shell, Esso, Total and Jet) and fringe gasoline stations? Using 2014 Market Transparency price data from 66 cities with populations between 60,000 and 100,000, we analyze which brands lead price increases, the...

Comparative advertising is a daily phenomenon in the modern landscape of commercial communication. Interestingly, however, a deep dichotomy exists between the American legal doctrine on comparative advertising and its European counterpart. Whereas American lawyers have cultivated a rather...