Hogan Lovells successfully represented Trainline in Bundeskartellamt proceedings against Deutsche Bahn

Press releases | 05 July 2023

Led by Dr Christoph Wünschmann and Carolin Marx, global law firm Hogan Lovells has successfully represented international mobility platform Trainline in abuse of dominance proceedings initiated by Bundeskartellamt (Germany's federal competition authority) against Deutsche Bahn.

The Bundeskartellamt's landmark decision requires Deutsche Bahn to stop various abusive practices against Trainline and other online mobility platforms. Going forward, Deutsche Bahn must lift advertising and discount restrictions and pay its online sales partners appropriate and non-discriminatory fees for the sale of DB tickets. In addition, Deutsche Bahn is obliged to provide its online sales partners access to real-time data on train traffic. This was the first time that the Bundeskartellamt relied on a new provision on data access in German competition law.

Hogan Lovells team for Trainline

Dr Christoph Wünschmann (Partner, Munich), Dr Jan-Christoph Rudowicz (Counsel, Hamburg), Dr Josepha Koch (Associate, Munich) (all Antitrust);

Carolin Marx (Partner), Simon Ingenbleek (Associate) (both Litigation, Munich).