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Director General presents AFCA’s Annual Report 2024 in Parliament

The year 2024 was characterised by a concerted effort to prosecute market abuse and cartel agreements, by investigating anti-competitive mergers and by internal restructuring.

Annual Report 2024

“I would like to thank my whole team who work tirelessly to achieve fair competition every day. The results we accomplished in 2024 are impressive,” says Natalie Harsdorf, Director General for Competition.

Market abuse
The AFCA has specifically focused on cases of market abuse, which impact competition very negatively. Many complaints have been submitted, particularly from SMEs. In 2024, there were three market abuse cases, the involved companies of two of which have already been fined by the Cartel Court (the last case dates back to 2009). Proceedings against Österreichische Post AG were finally concluded in 2024, with the Cartel Court imposing a fine of EUR 9.2 million. Proceedings against Peugeot Austria GmbH were also finally concluded in 2024, with a fine of EUR 15 million being imposed. In June 2024, the AFCA filed an extensive application for the imposition of an appropriate fine and termination of infringement of the bans on abuse of a dominant market position and on cartels against Brau Union and its parent company Heineken. The AFCA is not accusing Heineken of having itself been involved in the infringements.

Antitrust enforcement

In the construction cartel case, six further applications were filed with the Cartel Court for the imposition of a fine. As at 31 December 2024, fines totalling EUR 192.58 million had been imposed by the Cartel Court at the AFCA’s request in relation to the construction cartel. In the welding technology cartel, all proceedings have been concluded, with total fines of EUR 4.375 million having been handed down. In the facade construction cartel, fines imposed in 2024 totalled EUR 160,000.


In February 2024, and following extensive investigations into the waste management sector, the AFCA filed its first application with the Cartel Court for findings against the first leniency recipient FCC Austria Abfall Service AG, on the grounds of price fixing, market divisions and the exchange of sensitive information. In October 2024, the Cartel Court finally granted the application for findings in relation to FCC. In September 2024, the AFCA filed another application with the Cartel Court to fine leniency recipient Saubermacher Dienstleistungs AG EUR 7.085 million. Further such applications are expected to be filed in 2025.

Anti-competitive mergers and notification obligations

The AFCA was notified of a total of 352 national mergers last year. The service unit, which is available for queries surrounding the question of whether a merger is subject to notification (POST-Anmeldepflicht@bwb.gv.at), dealt with 36 enquiries in 2024. Five mergers were released subject to conditions in Phase I and two mergers subject to conditions in Phase II. Eight notifications were withdrawn in Phase I and two in Phase II.
Conditional merger clearances:

Organisational structure

The AFCA underwent internal restructuring in 2024: three new departments, two units and one Executive Director for International Affairs position were set up to ensure efficiency and quality in the long term. The former Forensics Department became the Forensics, Data Analysis and AI Department. And to bolster the strength of the Staff Department, additional economists were hired, and competition monitoring and cartel screening were added as new areas of responsibility.

Competition advocacy and cooperation

Raising awareness of competition issues is an important part of AFCA’s prevention efforts.

For the tenth time in a row, the AFCA opened its doors to the annual Cartel Law Moot Court, which took place on 7 June 2024. The law competition event was staged together with the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA) Austria and the law firm DORDA Rechtsanwälte GmbH and celebrated its 11th anniversary in 2024. Eight teams took part in 2024, and they were mentored by renowned law firms, which also helped them prepare for the oral hearing. More than 100 students have participated in the Moot Court since its inception.

The Austrian Federal Competition Authority (AFCA), Energie-Control Austria (E-Control), the Austrian Data Protection Authority (dsb), the Financial Market Authority (FMA), the Austrian Communications Authority (KommAustria), the rail transport regulator Schienen-Control, the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications (RTR) and the Austrian Telekom-Control-Kommission (TKK) established a joint Digitalisation Network. The aim is for the independent authorities to exchange their sector-specific knowledge on digitalisation issues.

The AFCA and the Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAK) jointly organised an interactive Compliance Compass workshop for municipalities. This should raise awareness of the issues at stake and create a clear set of guidelines for legal certainty in public procurement.

The AFCA also intensified its cooperation with the Regional Courts of Audit in Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tirol and Vorarlberg to make contracting authorities more aware of cartel law breaches. Together they prepared a checklist that should give contracting authorities a tool to identify cartel law breaches and report them accordingly, if necessary. Contracting authorities may also take preventive action, in collaboration with the AFCA, to put a stop to any such illegal activities.

Publication of annual reports on activities

The AFCA publishes an Annual Report every year. After consultation with the Competition Commission, the Annual Report must be presented to the Parliament by the Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism without delay. The AFCA Director General was summoned as an expert witness. She presented the Annual Report to the Members of Parliament and answered their questions. The Annual Report was unanimously accepted by the Parliament’s Committee on Economy, Industry and Energy.

“Our Annual Report has just been unanimously accepted by the Parliament. I would like to thank my whole team who work tirelessly to achieve fair competition every day. The results we accomplished in 2024 are impressive,” says Natalie Harsdorf, Director General for Competition.

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