Die kartellrechtliche Zulässigkeit von pressespezifischen Kooperationen (English shop)

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This study was prompted by the debate on antitrust facilitations for the press sector in the run-up to the 7th amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB). In view of negative economic developments in the press sector, the key points for the amendment contained new provisions intended to permit cooperation between press undertakings to a greater extent than before.

However, facilitating the antitrust admissibility of cooperation in the press sector constitutes a legal problem area of particular explosiveness. At stake is not only the preservation of competition and market structures, but also the maintenance of media diversity, which is of fundamental importance for the formation of political opinion in a democratic state governed by the rule of law.

The study examines the limits imposed by antitrust law before and after the legislative reform of 2005 with regard to every form of economic cooperation in all areas of the production of press products and their distribution, as well as activity on different markets.

The investigation answers the legal-policy and doctrinal question of whether and to what extent, as a result of the reorientation of antitrust law brought about by the 7th GWB amendment, a need for regulatory improvement has arisen specifically for inter-firm cooperation between press undertakings, particularly against the background that none of the amendment proposals put forward in the run-up to the reform was implemented.