On 9 June 2017, the 9th Amendment to the German Competition Act (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen) entered into force. It transposes the EU Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions into German law. Yet, the German legislator also took the opportunity to implement some additional changes....

Public enforcement of competition law in Germany is well-established and follows relatively clear rules. Two routes are available: an administrative proceeding that may lead to prohibition decisions and minor remedies, and a quasi-criminal regulatory offence proceeding that also allows for the...

The German Federal Government recently prevented two Chinese acquisitions of shares in German technology and infrastructure companies for national security reasons. A legal framework for controlling foreign direct investment (FDI) exists in Germany since 2004, but it remains largely untested...

The EU Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions holds multiple injurers jointly and severally liable for the harm they cause through jointly infringing the competition laws. If an injurer pays to a victim more than the injurer's fair share, the latter is entitled to obtain a contribution from any...

It is a well-established principle of EU competition law that parent companies can be fined for antitrust infringements by their subsidiaries. Under the new EU Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions, parent company liability is likely to be extended to private antitrust suits. In the United...

Whereas the European Commission is not empowered to impose penalties on individuals according to Regulation 1/2003, many EU Member States allow their national competition authorities or criminal law enforcers to do so. However, because the Commission typically invokes its competence where...

Proponents of a ‘more economic approach’ (MEA) to EU competition law criticise the case law on abuse of dominance as overly form-based – i.e. as being built on categorizations rather than case-specific assessments of actual competitive effects. While the Commission has largely accepted...