Newsletter, Antitrust Law October 2011

1. German Federal Court of Justice [Bundesgerichtshof] acknowledges the validity of the termination of a press wholesaler by the Bauer publishing house

By judgement dated 24 October 2011 (docket no. KZR 7/10), the Antitrust Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice upheld the validity of the termination of the independent press wholesaler Heinz-Ulrich Grade KG by the Bauer Media Group. According to the Court the publishing house was not obliged to continue supplying its press products to the wholesaler through a joint declaration of the associations nor on grounds of the impediment and discrimination ban pursuant to German antitrust law. The termination did not call into question the freedom of the press protected by the German Constitution [Grundgesetz]. (The full judgement has not yet been published.)