mobility platforms
Due to impeding competition: Cartel Office warns Deutsche Bahn
The Cartel Office has warned Deutsche Bahn for obstructing mobility platforms
© Christoph Schmid / DPA
For more than two years, the Federal Cartel Office examined how Deutsche Bahn deals with mobility platforms. The result: The authority considers an abuse of market power to be possible.
The Federal Cartel Office in Bonn has issued a warning to Deutsche Bahn (DB) for possible hindrances to mobility services. With a few exceptions, DB does not provide any forecast data for rail passenger transport for such services, such as data on delays, journey progress, train cancellations or platform changes. However, these data are “essential for the development of such services,” the Cartel Office said on Wednesday.
The authority had initiated investigations against the railway at the end of 2019; now the preliminary result is available. DB and the mobility platforms “involved in the procedure” can now comment on this.
According to Andreas Mundt, head of the Cartel Office, Deutsche Bahn is the dominant rail transport company in Germany “from network operations to ticket sales”. Therefore, she has “special obligations towards third parties”. Mobility service providers who arrange, for example, the combination of train tickets with flights, car sharing, long-distance buses or rental bicycles are “inconceivable” without the involvement of DB. According to the Cartel Office, they have a “right to the traffic data of the railways” – otherwise the business models “could not work”.
The market power of Deutsche Bahn
According to the investigations conducted so far, DB has a dual role: on the one hand, it is itself a strong mobility platform with its portal bahn.de and with its app DB Navigator, as the cartel office explained. In addition to its own ticket sales, it combines its own cross-transport offers and also takes over ticket sales for third parties, for example for more than 50 transport associations.
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On the other hand, according to the Cartel Office, the railways, as by far the leading rail transport company, can control the use of rail transport in the offers of third parties. For example, contractual partners have to forego discount campaigns or bonus point programs from Deutsche Bahn; if they sell DB tickets, they may not receive any commission for booking and payment processing, as the cartel office suspects.
According to the Cartel Office, the restrictions on competition also affect the interests of Deutsche Bahn’s competitors: mobility platforms could be an important channel for the significantly smaller and less well-known railways in Germany to increase their range and attract customers, the authority explained.
“However, if travelers are directed further and further to the DB channels, directly or indirectly, the alternative transport companies only reach a few potential customers.” The result: DB’s market power continues to strengthen.
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