Bundeskartellamt prohibits merger between M. DuMont Schauberg and Bonner Zeitungsdruckerei

The Bundeskartellamt has prohibited a participation of M. DuMont Schauberg Expedition of the Kölnische Zeitung GmbH & Co. KG (MDS), Cologne, in the Bonner Zeitungsdruckerei und Verlagsanstalt H. Neusser GmbH, Bonn. MDS publishes the newspapers „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ and „Kölnische Rundschau“. Bonner Zeitungsdruckerei publishes the Bonn newspaper „General-Anzeiger“. The merger would have led to a strengthening of the parties’ dominant positions in the affected reader and advertising markets.

Before the notification, MDS had reduced the share it had originally planned to acquire (18.03 per cent) in the Bonner Zeitungsdruckerei to 9.015 per cent. However, due to the parties’ economic and competitive interests involved and the shareholder’s new rights to information the project would have led to MDS gaining considerable influence on Bonner Zeitungsdruckerei even with this amount of participation. In addition, there are various economic linkages between the participants, such as the jointly controlled Bonner Anzeigenblatt GmbH & Co. KG, Bonn, which publishes advertising papers in the “General-Anzeiger”’s main distribution area. Therefore the Bundeskartellamt established that the acquisition was subject to merger control.

MDS and Bonner Zeitungsdruckerei are competitors in the publication of regional subscription dailies, especially in the Rhein-Sieg administrative district and in the city of Bonn. The Bonn „General-Anzeiger“ is clearly the leading newspaper in large parts of its distribution area. This market position would be secured and thus strengthened by a merger with its only actual competitor “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” / “Kölnische Rundschau”. Conversely, MDS would also secure the dominant position of “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” and/or “Kölnische Rundschau” in the reader and advertising markets in the Cologne area as a result of the merger.