Policy Brief on electricity markets
Policy Brief | Issue 10 | October 11, 2022
In its tenth policy brief, "Further Development of Electricity Markets, Designing a Price Cap in Conformity with Competition", the Monopolies Commission makes recommendations on the electricity price cap. The Monopolies Commission recommends that a response to price increases on the electricity market should be designed in a targeted manner and in line with the market:
- The electricity market design should be retained but further developed in the medium term.
- The cap for additional revenues (windfall profits) should - as far as possible - be carried out uniformly for conventional power generators, taking forward contracts into account.
- The top priority in providing relief to consumers must be to avoid weakening incentives to save energy. At the same time, the neediness of the households to be relieved should be taken into account.
Entrepreneur of the very first hour in Germany's digital economy Constanze Buchheim becomes a member of the Monopolies Commission
Berlin/Bonn, September 30, 2022
The German government has appointed entrepreneur Constanze Buchheim as a member of the Monopolies Commission for the term of office from October 1, 2022 to June 30, 2026.
Constanze Buchheim has been active in the digital economy for 15 years. She started her career in 2006 at e-commerce pioneer Spreadshirt and founded i-potentials in 2009 as the leading executive search boutique of the digital and innovation landscape, emerging from the startup scene. As part of this role and her work as a business angel and advisory board member, she has accompanied the growth of countless well-known startups and digital players as well as the transformation of medium-sized companies, family businesses and corporations in Germany. She is a recognized expert on the topic of future leadership and has shaped the leadership and organizational structures of companies that are now among the beacons of the German innovation landscape. Buchheim is also a member of the supervisory board of the "HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management" and of the software company "Valsight" and has been president of the international Entrepreneurs Organization (Berlin Chapter) since July 2022. Handelsblatt ranked her among the 50 most influential women in the tech industry in 2021 and selected her as one of the 50 best female entrepreneurs in Germany in 2022.
Buchheim succeeds entrepreneur Dr. Thomas Nöcker, who retired from the Monopolies Commission on June 30, 2022, after serving three terms.
Biennial Report XXIV: Competition 2022
Biennial Report of the Monopolies Commission under § 44(1) ARC, July 05, 2022
Monopolies Commission: The ecological-digital transformation will only succeed with a strong competition regime
In its Biennial Report "Competition 2022", the Monopolies Commission makes recommendations on how an adaptation of the competition regime can contribute to the ecological-digital transformation. Today, it presented its report to the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Dr. Robert Habeck.
The Chairman of the Monopolies Commission, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kühling, LL.M.: "The competition regime in Germany is an important pillar for coping with the upcoming transformation processes. At the same time, it ensures that market power which arises in the course of digitalisation and increase in concentration in individual sectors is limited. The Monopolies Commission also takes a fundamentally positive view of the most recent considerations of the Ministry for Economic Affairs on a tightening of antitrust law. It already analysed the possibility of an abuse-independent unbundling in 2010 and presented recommendations for the requirements of such an instrument, but also pointed out its limits."
