The German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) levied fines totaling approximately €26 million against six companies and one individual during 2024, according to its recently released annual report for 2024/25. The report, published on Wednesday, details enforcement actions spanning various sectors including personal protective equipment, telecommunications and network technology, construction services and road repairs.
Including interest payments, the agency collected a total of approximately €53.7 million in fines. Early in the first half of 2025, authorities conducted three dawn raids, resulting in fines of €10 million and the collection of around €16 million in penalties from previous cases.
“The number of concluded proceedings has risen again in 2024” stated Andreas Mundt, Head of the Federal Cartel Office. This increase is reflected in the rise of the overall fine amount. The number of raids significantly increased to eleven throughout the year. The agency confirmed its focus extends across a wide range of industries, from road construction to network technology and protective clothing, facilitated by its modern IT infrastructure which enables systematic market observation.
Mundt highlighted that many of the newly initiated investigations were triggered by tips received through an external reporting channel, reinforcing its value as a complement to formal whistleblowing requests, of which 17 were received last year. Overall, the report indicates a positive trend in antitrust enforcement. “We are not easing up and have further significant investigations in progress” the head of the agency concluded.