Wettbewerb und Wettbewerbsverzerrungen am Messestandort Deutschland

The trade fair industry in Germany is characterised by competition between private and public trade fair organisers. In contrast to the private organisers, the public trade fair organisers are vertically integrated: on the one hand they own and operate the local trade fair infrastructure, but also organise numerous trade fairs themselves. This asymmetry can lead to distortions of competition such as self-preferential treatments. The Corona pandemic has exacerbated this problem. Through self-regulation, for example in the form of a voluntary commitment to a Code of Conduct, the trade fair industry could undertake not to discriminate between its own and third-party trade fairs in order to avoid self-preferencing, which is detrimental to competition.