Digital Competition and Regulation in the World: A Primer
35 Pages Posted: 16 Jun 2021 Last revised: 29 Jun 2021
Date Written: June 29, 2021
Abstract
The digital economy is at the forefront of the agenda of decisionmakers worldwide following several expert reports on competition in digital markets, underscoring competition issues. The question shifts then from why to how to adapt competition to the digital economy. Digital competition and digital regulation? Europe, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Italy, Austria, the United States consider ex-ante regulations and ex-post competition laws to tackle issues in digital markets. Australia and Greece also envisage to legislate. The journey only begins. Some legislations are proposals, while others are already enacted. At this stage, changes are likely in the future, even regarding enacted legislations, following developments in other countries, and discussions during the legislative processes. In this context, the paper offers a primer to digital competition and regulation with a holistic analysis of the principal features rather than an in-depth analysis of each legislation. From a law and economics standpoint, it thus explains rather than compares the legislations and puts forward some improvements. Section II analyzes the legislations. It examines the instruments, goals, scope, and content. Section III proposes some improvements to the legislations to minimize error costs at no or low costs for undertakings with substantial benefits for end-users and businesses. It suggests ensuring convergence of legal regime and enforcement, effective consumer choice, and indirect entry. Section IV concludes.
Keywords: Competition law and economics, digital competition, digital regulation, digital economy, antitrust, competition law, big data
JEL Classification: K21, L1, L4, L5, L86
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation