German Competition Authority Still One Of The Most Active Regulators In Europe

Authored by: Till Steinvorth and Boris Marschall

Germany's Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has published two documents summarizing its activities for the public: a more detailed "Activities Report" for the years 2015 and 2016 and the high-level "Annual Report 2016." These documents confirm that the FCO continues to be a highly active operator in the area of competition law enforcement in Europe.

The 2016 enforcement statistics confirm tendencies from earlier years. In 2016, the FCO inspected 91 business premises and 5 private homes. This number is at the same level as the previous year (88 business premises and 6 homes were inspected in 2015). Yet the number of cartel proceedings completed each year has continuously decreased from seventeen in 2012 to four in 2016, and the aggregated amount of fines set by the FCO in 2016, EUR 124.6 million, is the lowest at least since 2007, far from the exceptionally high aggregated amount of EUR 1.117 billion in 2014.