Bundeskartellamt allows AdAlliance and Bauer to jointly market advertising space

The Bundeskartellamt has no objections at this point in time to the plans by Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG (Bauer) and AdAlliance GmbH (AdAlliance), which belongs to RTL Deutschland, to jointly market Bauer’s advertising inventory through AdAlliance.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “Both companies market advertising space in popular magazine titles from the categories food/drink, living/interior design and women’s magazines. In certain advertising markets AdAlliance and Bauer achieve significant market shares. The cooperation project will limit options for potential advertising customers when negotiating with the parties. We therefore asked the parties to substantially change their cooperation agreement, for example with regard to Bauer’s right to set prices and the exchange of information between the parties. Our survey of advertising customers, media agencies and competitors has shown that customers do not expect the cooperation to have any negative effects. We have ultimately decided to tolerate the cooperation project at this point. However, as with the other larger marketing cooperation projects in this sector, we will continue to monitor how the cooperation develops and can intervene if problems arise.”

The decision relates to the marketing of advertising space in magazines published by Bauer from the categories food/drink (for example “Lecker”), living/interior design (for example “Wohnidee”) and women’s magazines (for example “Cosmopolitan”). The marketing of Bauer’s remaining advertising inventory was already transferred to AdAlliance earlier this year. This was advertising inventory in print and digital formats, which could be clearly considered unproblematic under competition law as there was no overlap in the two companies’ respective areas of activity. The additional advertising inventory covered by the present decision accounts for approximately 10 per cent of Bauer’s entire advertising inventory.

AdAlliance markets advertising space in various TV, print, audio and digital offerings of RTL Deutschland. The company’s portfolio also includes magazine titles from the categories mentioned above (for example “Essen & Trinken”, “Schöner Wohnen” or “Brigitte”).

Bauer and AdAlliance will jointly market advertising space based on a cooperation contract. The cooperation project was therefore not to be assessed under merger control rules (unlike, for example, the joint venture launched by Burda and Funke in 2023; see press release of 17 March 2023). Instead, the Bundeskartellamt examined the relevant contracts and agreements between Bauer and AdAlliance solely under the principles of the general prohibition of anti-competitive agreements.

The investigations have shown that the cooperation will restrict competition to only a limited extent. From the perspective of customers, the different magazine titles of the parties are not close competitors. In addition, customers noted that it was still possible for them to shift parts of their advertising budget to, for example, titles marketed by the competitor BCN Brand Community Network GmbH (a subsidiary of Burda) or to other forms of media. The investigations have also shown that without the marketing cooperation it would be likely that individual magazine titles or the marketing of their advertising space would be discontinued as it was not considered economically viable to market Bauer’s remaining titles separately. In addition, according to the investigations, there are no other companies which would be interested in marketing the relevant magazine titles and would restrict competition to a lesser degree.

It is against this background that, within the scope of its discretion, the Bundeskartellamt decided not to prohibit the project at this point.

In the relevant area of marketing advertising space, the Bundeskartellamt recently also tolerated the launch of similar marketing cooperation projects between BCN and Medienholding Klambt and between BCN and Funke Mediengruppe GmbH & Co. KGaA despite comparable concerns and explicitly reserved the option to intervene at a later point in time, in particular if there are complaints from market participants. With respect to the cooperation project between AdAlliance and Bauer, the Bundeskartellamt can also take up the case again in the future and, if necessary, prohibit the cooperation if substantial complaints arise or the parties extend their cooperation.