Competition Law in Conflict Cases 2025 – Highlights Beyond the Classic Follow-On Cases

In a new installment of the D’KART blog, author Dr. Stephan Kreifels offers a wide-ranging overview of recent German and European competition law developments, opening with a dispute before the Munich Higher Regional Court involving concert dates, tradition, and market dominance in access to large concert halls. While the court acknowledged a dominant position during key seasonal periods, it rejected claims to specific traditional dates, finding instead a contractual breach rather than an abuse of market power.

The post then turns to the Federal Court of Justice’s latest interpretation of Section 20 GWB on relative market power, arising from a quarry lease dispute. The court clarified the concept of economic dependency, emphasizing that location-specific investments and existential risks can constrain a supplier’s freedom of action, while also confirming that eliminating competition or securing higher rents is not a legitimate justification under competition law.

Further sections address limits on antitrust scrutiny of association rules, early civil court applications of the Digital Markets Act, jurisdictional battles in digital platform disputes, and less common procedural issues such as administrative assistance in estimating cartel damages. Kreifels also touches on the boundary between antitrust and administrative law, highlighting a Berlin case where state-imposed fees were deemed immune from abuse control under the GWB.

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