Go Green Go

Sustainability and competition law has been a hotly debated topic. While some competition authorities have dedicated specific guidelines for cooperations among competitors in the name of sustainability, the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has been adamant that it will adopt a case-by-case approach and that guidance can only be derived from specific precedents. It has continuously invited companies to bring forward specific cases - and sometimes the president of the FCO, Andreas Mundt, jokingly even questioned whether there was really such a big need for guidance given the low numbers of precedents on which the FCO's position was actively requested. Last week, the FCO finally had another chance to provide its assessment and expressed its support for a project introducing a reusable system in the plant trade sector to reduce plastic waste (see press release).