European Competition Enforcement and the Digital Economy: The Birthplace of Precautionary Antitrust

Abstract

In Section I of this paper, I examine the origins or seeds of precautionary antitrust by revisiting enforcement by European administrative competition agencies in digital markets. In Section II, I explain how this ideology was embraced, advocated, and advanced in several “tech reports” representing the blossoming of the precautionary principle. I conclude in Section III, by proposing the reinstatement and further development of tools that protect the legal and economic rationale of antitrust, as recognized by European courts.