Germany enacts law reform to counter the market power of large digital platforms

Germany approved a reform to its competition legal framework. The new regulation aims at making the digital market fairer through greater competition between tech companies. The bill will allow the German competition authority Bundeskartellamt to prohibit abusive economic behaviour before it takes place. Currently, German competition laws, similarly to those of the EU, only enable authorities to act after a company has abused a dominant market position. This practice has proven to be ineffective against the anti-competitive behaviour of large digital companies. The new legislation allows the Bundeskartellamt to compile a list of companies considered dominant and to enforce rules that prohibit preferential treatment to their own services or hinder the operation of other similar services. German authorities expect that its new competition framework will help the EU legislative process, particularly with regard to the Digital Markets Act