EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

Prague, Czechia

5. Conclusion Overall, the long-awaited KaWeRÄG 2021 brings a balanced mix of new procedural and material changes to the already quite complex Austrian system of competition law enforcement (Thyri, 2007). While practically speaking, merger control will definitely be the most affected by the recent amendments, some almost revolutionary potential is added to the law of anti-competitive agreements in that a sustainability-defence is explicitly included. Whether this new sustainability exemption will stand the test of time – and the test of compatibility with the primacy of EU law – or rather remain a niche-provision hardly ever applied for lack of suitable cases, will be up to the institutions and applicants that may rely on it. In any case, further guidance, be it from the Federal Competition Authority or the Cartel Court, will be needed and it is to be assumed that also on the EU-level, discussions about sustainability will not cease and continue to interact with national developments. Finally, as concerns digital markets, we will see whether Austrian enforcement will remain the forefront of innovative developments as it was following the introduction of the transaction value threshold that brought a number of critical digital merger cases under the scrutiny of the Austrian competition authority (Thyri, 2020). Especially as larger member states and especially the EU Commission start to tackle digital gatekeepers with ever more fervour – and presumably will even further increase to do so after the implementation of the Digital Markets Act – we shall see how much remains to be done at the Austrian level. References [1] Hartung, I., Reidlinger, A. (2021). KaWeRÄG 2021: Die Anpassung von KartG und WettbG an die ECN+-Richtlinie. ecolex 2021 , pp. 880–883. [2] Haslinger/Nagele (2021). Das KaWeRÄG 2021 im Überblick. [online]. Availible from: https://www.haslinger-nagele.com/aktuell/was-lange-waehrt-wird-endlich-gut das-kaweraeg-2021-im-ueberblick/. [3] Hlina, E., Wollmann, H. (2021). KaWeRÄG 2021: Neuerungen in der Fusionskon trolle. ecolex 2021 , pp. 887–889. [4] Thyri, P. (2007). Kartellrechtsvollzug in Österreich . Vienna: Manz. [5] Thyri, P. (2008 ). Österreichisches Kartell- und Fusionskontrollverfahrensrecht, in Ter hechte (ed.), Internationales Kartell- und Fusionskontrollverfahrensrecht – Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Praxis. Gieseking Verlag Bielefeld. [6] Thyri, P. (2020). FIDE National Report Austria, in Mandrescu (ed.). EU Competition Law and the Digital Economy, No 89. [7] Wegener, A., Schwenker, B. (Big) “Bang” in motor vehicle distribution? The decision of the Higher Regional Court of Vienna of 5 December 2020 and potential effects

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