Competition Law, Regulation and Data Protection in the Digital Economy

The increasing concentration of digital markets to the benefit of a comparatively small number of platform operators has stirred international debates on how to control “big tech”. The implications of the business models of these companies and their regulation for innovation, consumer autonomy and market entry have been a focus of the Institute’s research, which aims to provide input for the EU’s parallel intention of modernizing competition law’s approach to dominance. In addition, the Institute has contributed to the debate on implementing the new European rules on regulating the platform economy. The Institute’s contributions mostly concern new forms of anticompetitive market conduct and provide guidance on amending the legal framework. This work reflects the increasing interrelation of competition law, data privacy and considerations of anti-competitive behavior among platforms, which has culminated in the Digital Markets Act.