Federal Act
on Cartels and other
Restraints of Competition
(Cartel Act, CartA)

¹ Agree­ments af­fect­ing com­pet­i­tion are bind­ing or non-bind­ing agree­ments and con­cer­ted prac­tices between un­der­tak­ings op­er­at­ing at the same or at dif­fer­ent levels of pro­duc­tion which have a re­straint of com­pet­i­tion as their ob­ject or ef­fect.

² Dom­in­ant un­der­tak­ings are one or more un­der­tak­ings in a spe­cif­ic mar­ket that are able, as sup­pli­ers or con­sumers, to be­have to an ap­pre­ciable ex­tent in­de­pend­ently of the oth­er par­ti­cipants (com­pet­it­ors, sup­pli­ers or con­sumers) in the mar­ket.⁹

^2bis An un­der­tak­ing with re­l­at­ive mar­ket power is an un­der­tak­ing on which oth­er un­der­tak­ings are de­pend­ent for the sup­ply of or de­mand for goods or ser­vices in such a way that there are no ad­equate and reas­on­able op­por­tun­it­ies for switch­ing to oth­er un­der­tak­ings.¹⁰

³ Con­cen­tra­tion of un­der­tak­ings are:

a.

the mer­ger of two or more pre­vi­ously in­de­pend­ent un­der­tak­ings;

b.

any trans­ac­tion, in par­tic­u­lar the ac­quis­i­tion of an equity in­terest or the con­clu­sion of an agree­ment, by which one or more un­der­tak­ings ac­quire dir­ect or in­dir­ect con­trol of one or more pre­vi­ously in­de­pend­ent un­der­tak­ings or parts there­of.