Topic outline

  • General

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  • Week 1--Introduction to Competition Law and Policy; Economic Analysis and Market Definition; Digitalisation

    Reading

    European Commission's Notice on Market Definition (February 2024)

    J Furman, D Coyle, A Fletcher, D Mc Auley and P Marsden, Unlocking Digital Competition: Report from the Digital Competition Expert Panel (March 2019)

    Stigler Center, Committee for the Study of Digital Platforms: Report by the Market Structure and Antitrust Subcommittee (2019)

    J Crémer, y de Montjoye and H Schweitzer, Competition Policy for the digital era : Final report (2019) (“Commission Report”)

    Committee on the Judiciary (Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law), “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets” (Majority Staff Report and Recommendations) (2020)

    For an overview of these reports see F Lancieri and P Sakowski, “Competition in Digital Markets: A Review of Expert Reports” (2020) < https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3681322

    Jens-Uwe Franck and Martin Peitz, ‘Market Definition and Market Power in the Platform Economy’ (2019) CERRE Report 

    Ezrachi and Stucke, “How your digital helper may undermine your welfare, and our democracy”, (2017) Berkeley Technology Law Journal

    Gal and Elkin Koren, “Algorithmic consumers”, 30 Harvard Journal of Law and Technology (2017), 1

    John Newman, ‘Antitrust in Zero-Price Markets: Foundations’ (2018) 164 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 149-206


  • Week 2 -- The Question of Collusion: Competition Law and Algorithms

    Bundeskartellamt and Autorité de la Concurrence, ‘Algorithms and Competition’ (2019)

    OECD, Algorithms and Collusion – Background Note (2017) 

    UK – CMA – Algorithms: How They Can Reduce Competition and Harm Consumers (2021)

    OECD – Hub-and-Spoke Arrangements (Background Note) (2019)

    Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice Stucke, Algorithmic Collusion: Problems and Counter-Measures (OECD Roundtable on Algorithms and Collusion 2017)

    Maurice Stucke and Ariel Ezrachi, ‘Sustainable and Unchallenged Algorithmic Tacit Collusion’ (2020) 17 Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 217

    Joseph Harrington, ‘Developing Competition Law for Collusion by Autonomous Price-Setting Agents’ (2019) 14 Journal of Competition Law & Economics 331

    Pieter van Cleynenbreugel, ‘Article 101 TFEU’s Association of Undertakings Notion and its Surprising Potential to Help Distinguish Acceptable from Unacceptable Algorithmic Collusion’ (2020) The Antitrust Bulletin 1

    Salil Mehra, ‘Antitrust and the Robo-Seller: Competition in the Time of Algorithms’ (2016) 100 Minnesota Law Review 1323-1375

    Ulrich Schwalbe, ‘Algorithms, Machine Learning, and Tacit Collusion’ (2018) 14 Journal of Competition Law & Economics 568

    Antonio Gomes and Pedro Gonzaga,  Pricing algorithms: the risk of collusion and personalised pricing in I Kokkoris,  Research Handbook on the Law and Economics of Competition Enforcement (Edward Elgar 2022)

  • Week 3--The Question of Abuse of Dominance and Monopolisation

    M Ioannidou, “Digital Agoraphobia”: Exploitative Abuses in Digital Markets in I Kokkoris, Research Handbook on the Law and Economics of Competition Enforcement (Edward Elgar 2022)

    V Robertson, “Excessive Data Collection: Privacy Considerations and Abuse of Dominance in the Era of Big Data” (2020) 57 CMLRev 161

    A Ezrachi and V Robertson, “Competition, Market Power and Third-Party Tracking” (2019) 42 World Competition 5

    Bania, “The role of consumer data in competition enforcement”, 14 European Competition Journal (2018), 38

    Botta and Wiedemann, “EU competition law enforcement vis-à-vis exploitative conducts in the data economy exploring the terra incognita”, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Research Paper No. 18-08 (2018) 

    N Economides and I Lianos, “Restrictions on Privacy and Exploitation in the Digital Economy: A Market Failure Perspective” (2020) 

    M Buiten, “Exploitative Abuses in Digital Markets: Between Competition Law and Data Protection Law” (2020) Journal of Antitrust Enforcement

    M Botta and K Wiedemann, “Exploitative Conducts in Digital Markets: Time for a Discussion after the Facebook Decision” (2020) JECLAP 465\

    G Colangelo and M Maggiolino, “Data accumulation and the privacy–antitrust interface: insights from the Facebook case” (2018) 8 International Data Privacy Law 224

    Schneider, “Testing Art. 102 TFEU in the digital marketplace: Insights from the Bundeskartellamt’s investigation against Facebook”, 9 Journal of European Competition Law & Practice (2018), 213

    Philip Marsden, ‘Google Shopping for the Empress’s New Clothes – When a Remedy Isn’t a Remedy (and How to Fix It)’ (2020) Journal of European Competition Law & Practice

    Pablo Ibanez Colomo, ‘Self-Preferencing: Yet Another Epithet in Need of Limiting Principles’ (2020) 43 World Competition 417

    Damien Geradin and Georgios Katsifis, ‘The Antitrust Case against the Apple App Store’ (2020) (available on SSRN)



    TUTORIAL QUESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK

    1. 'When it comes to digital markets, market definition requires special attention and handling. The approach followed in traditional markets over so many years simply does not work when it comes to digitalisation.'

    Discuss.

    2. 'The provisions dealing with collusion between market operators capture fully and effectively all actual and possible hidden risks of algorithms.'

    Discuss.  


  • Q-Review Recordings

  • Week 4--Merger Control: Data-driven Mergers and 'Killer Acquisitions'

    *OECD, Start ups, killer acquisitions and competition law (2021) https://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/start-ups-killer-acquisitions-and-merger-control.htm ;

    Commission (EU), “Guidance on the application of the referral mechanism set out in Article 22 of the Merger Regulation to certain categories of cases” (C(2021) 1959 final) (26 March 2021) 

    I Lianos and P Regibeau, “Digital Mergers: A Primer” (2021) https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3837281 ;

    C Zhijun, C Chongwoo ,C Jiajia and M Noriaki, “Data-driven mergers and personalization” (2020) ISER Discussion Paper 1108, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University 

    UK – Ex Post Assessment of Merger Control Decisions in Digital Markets (Lear Report) (2019) 

    OECD, ‘Start-Ups, Killer Acquisitions and Merger Control – EU Contribution’ (2020) pp 1-5 

    OECD, ‘Start-Ups, Killer Acquisitions and Merger Control – US contribution’ (2020) 

    Elena Argentesi, Paolo Buccirossi, Emilio Calvano, Tomaso Duso, Alessia Marrazzo, Salvatore Nava, ‘Merger Policy in Digital Markets: An Ex Post Assessment’ (2020) Journal of Competition Law & Economics 

    Marc Bourreau and Alexandre de Streel, ‘Big Tech Acquisitions: Competition and Innovation Effects and EU Merger Control’ (2020) CERRE Issue Paper 

    Pierre Régibeau, Killer acquisitions? Evidence and potential theories of harm in I Kokkoris, Research Handbook on the Law and Economics of Competition Enforcement (Edward Elgar 2022)

  • Week 5--Remedies and Regulatory Responses

    M Ioannidou, “ Unpacking multi-level elements in digital markets: Informing effective enforcement and remedial design in EU competition law” in Carlo Maria Colombo, Kathryn Wright, Mariolina Eliantonio (eds), The Changing Governance of EU Competition Law: a Constitutional Challenge? (Hart 2023)

    B Seems, 'The DMA in the broader regulatory landscape of theEU: an institutional perspective' (2022) European Competition Journal

    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/17441056.2022.2129766?needAccess=true 

    G Colangelo, 'DMa begins', (2022) Journal of Antitrust Enforcement 

    https://academic.oup.com/antitrust/article/11/1/116/6978883

    T Käseberg, ' The DMA-Taking stock and looking ahead', (2022) Journal of European Competition law and Practice 

    https://academic.oup.com/jeclap/article/13/1/1/6508739 

    M Petz, 'How to apply the self-preferencing prohibition in the DMA' (2023) Journal of European Competition Law and Practice 

    https://academic.oup.com/jeclap/article/14/5/310/7207776 

    A Witt, 'The Digital Markets Act: Regulating the Wild West' (2023) Common market Law Review

    P Akman, “Regulating Competition in Digital Platform Markets: A Critical Assessment of the Framework and Approach of the EU Digital Markets Act”, (2022) European Law Review


    Tutorial questions

    1. 'Article 102 TFEU and its existing case law have proved to be effective and relevant when it comes to dealing with alleged abusive dominance in digital markets. This leaves little scope for arguing that some change in approach is needed.'

    Discuss.

    2. 'It is difficult to say whether data-driven mergers and so-called "killer acquisitions" present a problem for competition authorities.'
     
    Discuss. 

  • Assessment Information

  • Assessment Points