Germany's Federal Cartel Office gears up for the challenges of the AI age

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) remains actively engaged in enforcing antitrust law within the digital sector, focussing particularly on large digital companies.

On 30 September 2024, the Federal Cartel Office designated Microsoft as having paramount significance for competition across markets. It had previously found this to be the case with other tech giants like Alphabet/Google, Meta/Facebook, Amazon and Apple. This designation subjects these companies to the stricter provisions for control of abusive practices under section 19a of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen, “ARC”), allowing the Federal Cartel Office to prohibit them from engaging in a number of activities that allegedly distort competition.

For the first time, the Federal Cartel Office has also received support from the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) in applying section 19a ARC. Following Amazon‘s appeal against the declaratory decision of the Federal Cartel Office, the Federal Court of Justice confirmed the legality of the authorities‘ decision with its ruling on
23 August 2024 (KVB 56/22).

Furthermore, on 10 October 2024, the Federal Cartel Office concluded its high-profile proceedings against Facebook, which had lasted over five years. At the heart of the proceedings was Facebook’s practice of consolidating personal data from various sources without its users’ consent, which the Federal Cartel Office considered a prohibited abuse of market power under section 19(1) ARC. After an extended legal dispute, Facebook eventually offered various remedial measures that were accepted by the Federal Cartel Office.

The Digital Markets Act (“DMA”), which is enforced centrally by the European Commission, will not change the active role of the Federal Cartel Office in the digital sector. On the one hand, this is because the DMA expressly provides the opportunity for the national competition authorities to support its enforcement, which the Federal Cartel Office is willing to do. On the other hand, section 19a ARC equips the Federal Cartel Office with its own tools in the digital sector, enabling it to prohibit behaviour that distorts competition beyond the rules applicable under the DMA. In fact, the Federal Cartel Office has announced its intention to continue to actively use these powers.  

Another key issue for the Federal Cartel Office is the interface between artificial intelligence (“AI”) and competition law. The competition authorities of the G7 countries, including the Federal Cartel Office, issued a joint declaration at their recent competition summit on 4 October 2024, addressing competition issues related to AI. The report highlights two problematic areas: first, the control of AI markets by only a few up-and-coming providers (who increasingly cooperate with large digital corporations); second, the risk of “new forms” of anticompetitive behaviour, such as price fixing or coordination via AI-supported algorithms. In response, the competition authorities of the G7 countries agreed that future efforts will require global cooperation, targeted regulatory measures and the development of technological capacities within authorities.

This shows that in 2024 the Federal Cartel Office maintained its focus on the digital sector, addressing in particular both current and future markets. In any case, it is to be expected that the Federal Cartel Office will continue to play a pioneering role in digital antitrust law moving forward.

This article is part of the Competition Outlook 2025. You can find all Competition Outlook articles here.