23rd Annual Competition Conference

6 Sep - 7 Sep 2019

Session information

Digitalisation – antitrust tools for the digital economy – do we need a rethink?

Saturday 7 September (0930 - 1100)

Committee(s)

Antitrust Section (Lead)

Description

The debate around whether or not antitrust tools need to be adapted to the digital economy continues across major jurisdictions. Antitrust and big tech has become a political issue in the US Presidential campaign as well as with a new European Commission taking shape in Europe. The following questions will be addressed: • What are the implications for future enforcement of the various hearings and studies we are seeing, including at the US FTC and by Commissioner Vestager’s special advisers? • How should we think about online platforms and vertical integration, which is an issue being investigated on both sides of the ocean. • Is there an antitrust theory of harm around self-favouring? The discussion continues around the data economy and data sharing as an antitrust remedy: • Do we need new tools or theories of harm to address network effects and ‘tipping’ markets? • How do we look at defining relevant markets and market power in view of competition between ecosystems, competition for attention, two/multi-sided platform markets, an increasing focus on non-price effects, and data privacy as an element of product design? This panel gathers leading experts from regulators, private practice, corporates and academia to give their different perspectives on digitalisation.

Session / Workshop Chair(s)

Kristina Nordlander Senior Antitrust lawyer, London, England
Carolyn Oddie Allens, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Newsletter Editor, Antitrust Section

Speakers

Kyle Andeer Apple, San Francisco, California, USA
Andrea Appella OpenAI / The Dickson Poon School of Law, London, England
Silke Hossenfelder Bundeskartellamt, Bonn, Germany
Pablo Ibàñez Colomo London School of Economics and Political Science, London, England
Thomas Kramler DG Competition - European Commission, Brussels, Belgium