Their stubborn refusal to die is a hostile act against the USA 🤡

He heavily criticises lawyers who he claims have become more combative and less constructive in cases with the German competition authority.

Talking about procedural efficiency next: the German competition authority will use AI starting in 2026! (In particular: to cope with overburdening submissions “with little new information” and that “may have been generated by AI themselves” …)

In terms of cartel law, the authority imposed fines of about €10 million in 2025. “This may not sound much” but still is a sign of the efficient work of his authority in his opinion. He mentions that the authority had to divert resources from cartel enforcement to the monitoring of energy prices.

Mundt questions attempts to limit the ability of EU member states to adopt stricter competition law than at the EU level. He talks about a proposal at the level to define what is acceptable as “stricter law”.

Mundt now talks about enforcing competition law against Big Tech. He criticises attempts to limit enforcement powers in particular at the national level. He lists several cases of his authority against, Google, Apple, Amazon. Section 19a is not “gold plating the DMA”.

The German transaction value threshold is the next topic. There are too many issues/uncertainties (in particular regarding the requirement of domestic effects) making the cases inefficient for the German competition authority. He now argues that call-in powers are the better alternative.

He calls on increasing the competitiveness of the German/EU economy by deregulating - but not by limiting the competencies of competition authorities (increasing the turnover thresholds for merger control).

Other issues he addresses: efficiencies and sustainability as defences in merger control. Also: geopolitics (market power used by governments for political gain). His conclusion: “resilience” of companies should be a factor to be considered in merger review.

He addresses the question of investment remedies in #mergercontrol. Should they be accepted? He is sceptical. However, in his view, the practice in the USA could be an example: strict conditions, strict timelines, high fines of the commitments are not follows through.