Still time ahead…

The amendment is been discussed in Parliament for some time now , last time last week. As to data as a barrier to entry , a factor contributing to market power, data as an instrument for certain antcompetitive conducts and ( because of its transparency ) facilitating collusion, the German government appears to have gained ( at least) one certainty : the acquisition of ( not stock exchange quoted) startup companies with no or little market presence for an important price will lead to new notification thresholds : acquisitions as of EUR 400mio for such deals shall be subject to pre- merger approval, and be qualified as a hot-spot value. The acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook spurred further research into the issue. Recent debates in German parliament are in agreement with that issue. Startup companies dealing with data have been at the origin of the reasoning . Competition authorities care about privacy in that sense. An issue to follow up closely in 2017.