German parliament adopts antitrust law reform

The German parliament has adopted the 9^th reform of German antitrust law on March 9, 2017.  The second legislative chamber representing the states still needs to consent.  The reform encompasses a range of amendments and novelties, inter alia the implementation of the EU damages directive into German law, a new filing threshold for merger control based on the transaction size, procedural rules to speed up the ministerial merger authorization process, provisions on the notion of market definition and market power in the digital age, closing the gap regarding liability for fines in cases of legal succession (so-called “sausage gap”), limited new powers for the FCO in the area of consumer protection, as well as an exemption from the cartel prohibition for certain types of cooperation among press publishing houses.  Silke Heinz is quoted on the new merger control filing threshold in Global Competition Review, see here.