Cartel Law Amendment 2005

It has only been three years since the Austrian cartel law was last amended. Whereas at that time the focus was on the creation of new authorities (Federal Competition Authority and Federal Cartel Prosecutor) and procedural changes, the new amendment primarily concerns substantive issues. The present amendment is, for the time being, the last brick of alignment with EC cartel law. As regards the latter regime, EC Regulation 1/2003 had brought a complete paradigm shift in enforcement. Instead of constitutive exemption decisions by the European Commission for notified cartels, there is now a decentralized system of exemption by law on a Community level, where the undertakings themselves have to assess at their own risk, whether their practice infringes cartel law or not. The present alterations to Austrian cartel law, which have entered into force at the beginning of 2006, primarily reflect this change in the European law framework and are justified alone due to the fact that the