Programme list

The panel brings together representatives from key antitrust agencies and communications regulators who will examine hot issues at the intersection of competition and communications law.

New digital platforms in a variety of forms are constantly emerging and expanding the so-called match-making or sharing economy. This panel – composed of regulators, in-house counsel and private practitioners – will explore the concept of ‘digital platforms’ in its various forms. Who are the stakeholders, what are the public interests potentially at stake, are there specific antitrust, regulatory, consumer-protection related issues to be addressed and how? The session will also examine how to maintain a level playing field between digital platforms based on disruptive business models and traditional businesses potentially subject to heavy regulation.

The telecoms sector has been characterised by increasing consolidation in recent years and it’s important to anticipate the future trends. Consolidation is also presenting increasing challenges for competition and regulatory authorities. In pure mobile, most recently, the outright prohibition of Three UK/O2 in the UK and the abandonment of TeliaSonera/Telenor in Denmark was followed by the clearance of Hutchison/Vimplecom in Italy, subject to remedies. At the same time, recent deals such as BASE/ Liberty in Belgium and Jazztel/Orange in Spain involving fixed/ mobile integration have presented different substantive and, for the moment, less concerning issues. In this session we will discuss the current and future consolidation trends in the telecoms industry. We shall then consider the antitrust and regulatory issues raised by such mergers and acquisitions. In particular, we will examine: • The current state of consolidation in telecoms – where are we now and where are we going? • How cable and broadband consolidation affects telecoms mergers • The emerging framework for assessing conglomerate telecoms mergers • How to steer a four to three mobile merger through to clearances: a ‘live’ experience

This panel will discuss a number of questions: what is the new essential facility in the digital communications era? Still network? Or data? Or content? Or device? How does privacy play a role in all this? And how it may affect the competition: may the data become a source of market power and whether the availability of data can distort competition or can a conduct involving data infringe competition laws?

Electronic communications are underpinning the digitalisation of the sector and telecom and tech companies are competing for controlling the value chain. How zero rating and the internet of things/critical services will be approached by the different net neutrality models, what is changing for OTTs and telecom operators rights and obligations and internet governance, will all be analysed from the different regions perspective.

Following its vote to leave the EU, the telecommunications and digital markets sector in the UK will be faced with a new regulatory and business environment. EU directives have hitherto harmonised telecommunications regulations across the EU in areas such as market and network access, interconnection, as well as the management of spectrum and data privacy. The EU has also through its digital single market (DSM) initiatives laid out a roadmap for Europe to embrace digital platforms, and to establish new markets for the digital content and services. This session will examine the implications of Brexit on both consumers and telecommunications companies, and how the regulatory framework in the UK may evolve post-Brexit. The panel will discuss the challenges that the UK will face in securing access to the larger EU telecommunications and digital markets, as well as the opportunities that it may seek to exploit once freed from having to comply with EU directives. What sort of legislative and regulatory approaches or policies can the UK adopt to ensure its businesses have the best chance of continuing access to the European market on terms which are competitive with their European counterparts? Are there parallels or lessons to be drawn from the regulatory approaches adopted by non-European economies?