ACTIONS CORNER

- BaFin has given discharge to Clemens Börsig. The Deutsche Bank supervisory board chair had been accused of having approved of spying efforts. On commission from the bank, detectives had used impermissible methods to spy on disapproving shareholders and some of their own management staff. The financial watchdogs were unable to find any systematic misconduct. There were merely sporadic misconduct by employees of group security and shortcomings in the working processes to be complained of.

- The European Court of Justice on 3 December declared adjustments to the German Telecommunications Act (TKG) in 2004 to protect Deutsche Telekom investments null and void. The regulatory framework conditions for new networks formulated by the last German government were found to infringe European law, since in principle they excluded new markets from regulation by the Federal Network Agency. The competitors of Germany’s market leader had long criticized what critics call the Lex Telekom, saying that the regulators’ lack of power meant that the branch leader had a monopoly in building up its high-speed network (VDSL). Telekom had already, independently of the EU decision, come to agreements with competitors Vodafone and United Internet on a rental price for VDSL lines.