The Federal Cartel Office has approved the increase in the stake held by Hamburg billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne to 15 percent in Lufthansa.
"Even if, as a result of Kühne's participation in Lufthansa, less free capacity would be available for other air freight customers in the future, they would still have enough alternatives," said Andreas Mundt, head of the Cartel Office.
The Kuehne company increased its Lufthansa stake by five percent to 15.01 percent at the beginning of July.
This means that the now 85-year-old owner of the Swiss forwarding company Kühne+Nagel and main shareholder of the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company is also the largest Lufthansa shareholder, ahead of the German state.
The federal government had reduced its stake in Lufthansa to less than 10 percent a few weeks ago.
Due to a consistently low attendance at the annual general meeting for years, Kühne's participation at Lufthansa has put him in the position of a minority shareholder with a de facto blocking minority, according to the competition authorities.
Therefore, the cartel office had the participation under the microscope.