The German Federal Cartel Office has accused Deutsche Bahn (DB), the national railway operator, of violating antitrust laws. The office claims that DB is abusing its market power over mobility platforms and has requested the company to change its behavior and contractual clauses. Specifically, DB has been criticized for prohibiting mobility platforms from using specific terms like “DB Bahn,” “ICE,” or “bahn.de” as keywords to advertise on app stores, search engines, and social networks, limiting their visibility to potential customers. The Cartel Office also criticizes DB’s discount bans, stating that platforms should not offer any discounts on DB tickets, even if they pay the full fare to DB. The office argues that this disadvantages platforms that process bookings and payments for DB, as they incur costs such as payments, fraud losses, customer support, technical systems, and security measures. DB has one month to appeal against the decision, but it is expected to do so. The company argues that the original issue of passing on real-time data has been expanded upon by the Cartel Office, and it claims that the decision imposes additional financial burdens and restricts its entrepreneurial freedom. The Cartel Office states that its intention is to prevent the dominance of Deutsche Bahn from spreading into future transport markets.
