Bundeskartellamt clears takeover of the newspaper General-Anzeiger by Rheinische Post

The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the acquisition of all assets of H. Neusser Besitz- und Verwaltungs-GmbH & Co. KG ("Neusser KG") by Rheinisch-Bergische Verlagsgesellschaft mbH ("RBVG"). One of the newspapers published by RBVG is the "Rheinische Post"; Neusser KG publishes, among other papers, the daily "General-Anzeiger".

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "The acquisition does not raise any competition law concerns. The distribution areas of "Rheinische Post" and "General-Anzeiger" are separated by the greater Cologne area and do not overlap. The two newspaper groups therefore practically do not compete with one another for readers. For the same reason we do not expect any competition restraints on the advertising and radio broadcasting markets either."

RBVG is the holding company of the Rheinische Post media group and active on several German media markets, among others the markets for daily newspapers, advertising newspapers, radio broadcasting and classified ad portals. In the distribution areas Düsseldorf, Niederrhein-Nord, Niederrhein-Süd and Bergisches Land, RBVG publishes (among other papers) the subscription daily „Rheinische Post“.

Neusser KG has shares in several media companies in Germany that are active on the print media, radio and online markets. Neusser KG publishes the daily "General-Anzeiger" with nine local editions in its main distribution areas in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district. In addition, it publishes several advertising newspapers in the Rhineland region.

In its merger control proceedings, the Bundeskartellamt solely examines whether after an acquisition or merger there will still be sufficient competition on the markets affected. If newspaper publishers intend to merge, the Bundeskartellamt usually examines the effects on the reader markets and also on the advertising markets. While it is part of merger control to examine whether readers still have alternative sources to choose from, the Bundeskartellamt cannot use diversity of opinion per se as an assessment criterion in its examination.