Cooperation between FAZ and SZ in the joint marketing of advertising space is unproblematic in terms of competition law

The Bundeskartellamt has no competition concerns regarding the planned joint marketing of supra-regional advertising space between the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “After assessing the project, we have no objections to this cooperation. The benefits outweigh the possible restraint of competition. Customers will also benefit from the planned cooperation. We have surveyed numerous agencies and advertising customers and they do not expect conditions to deteriorate. Instead, the customers assume that the costs associated with advertising campaign booking will be reduced to their advantage.”

The two publishing houses intend to jointly market advertising space in supra-regional print media in the future. The formation of joint ventures always has to be examined under two different aspects of competition law. In late July 2020, the Bundeskartellamt had already cleared the formation of the joint venture under merger control provisions (see press release of 28 July 2020). The authority has now also assessed the cooperation between the two competitors with regard to the general prohibition of anti-competitive agreements and has no objections.

The German prohibition of anti-competitive agreements does not apply to the distribution agreement due to the statutory exemption to strengthen the economic base of publishing houses. However, owing to the economic importance of the project, European competition law also had to be applied. The cooperation’s ability to affect cross-border trade as well as the relevant sales generated by the parties with customers in other EU countries are the main reason for this legal assessment. European competition law does not include a special provision exempting publishing houses from the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements.

The Bundeskartellamt assumes that the cooperation will restrict competition on the relevant German market for advertising space in news print media, which, in addition to the national daily newspapers and magazines published by the parties, also includes weekly and Sunday newspapers as well as news magazines. The investigations have shown, however, that the requirements for exempting this agreement are met.

Further information is available in a case summary relating to this proceeding (in German only).