Apple under pressure: BGH confirms strict control over market power!

Apple under pressure: BGH confirms strict control over market power!

In a pioneering decision, the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) clearly confirmed the market power of Apple on Tuesday in Karlsruhe. With this judgment, the Federal Cartel Office was strengthened in its assessment, which in April 2023 found an outstanding cross-market importance of the US technology group. This enables the authority to control Apple's business -managers stricter and to prevent contrary behavior, as krone.at reported.

The BGH particularly criticized Apple's app stores, which give the company deep insights into the user behavior. This information could be used to revise competitive products and thus significantly impair the competition. Against the background of a reformed law against restrictions on competition, which came into force in 2021, the Bundeskartellamt has the opportunity to monitor large digital groups in two steps: First, the outstanding market power is determined, after which certain practices can be banned if they endanger the competition. The presiding judge, Wolfgang Kirchhoff, found that there is no need to be a specific risk to the competition in order to recognize a dominant position, which is sufficient for the risk potential. The disposal against Apple applies to five years, as tagesschau.de reported.

criticism of the BGH decision