Online platforms

Data Portability, Data protection, Digital, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digital Markets Act, Online advertising, Online platforms, Privacy

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) became entirely applicable on 7 March 2024. By then, the gatekeepers issued their compliance reports documenting their technical solutions and implementation of the DMA’s provisions under Article 11 DMA as well as their reports on consumer profiling techniques as required under Article 15 DMA (see here). I will be covering…

Data protection, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital Markets Act, European Commission, Ex ante regulation, Online advertising, Online advertising restrictions, Online platforms, Platforms, Privacy, Regulation

(University Villanueva, Spain)/ /Leave a comment

The DMA will start to apply on March 2024. Starting on the 2nd of May, the gatekeepers have a maximum of two months to notify their gatekeeper status to the European Commission (EC). The European Commission (EC) has acquired the compromise to make the process of the DMA’s future implementation, monitoring and oversight of compliance as…

Abuse of dominance, Guidelines, KFTC, Online platforms, Platforms, Self-preferencing, South Korea

(Kyoto University)/ /Leave a comment

It would no longer be surprising to see competition or regulatory authorities blaming digital platforms for favouring their own services on their own platforms. In particular, in Europe, seeing the General Court’s Google decisions (see e.g., Johannes Persch’s blog posts on Shopping and Android) and the self-preferencing obligation of the Digital Markets Act (see, e.g.,…

Digital competition, Digital markets, European Commission, Market definition, Online platforms

(University of Glasgow)/ /2 Comments

In November 2022, the European Commission published its draft revision of the Market Definition Notice. This is the first time the Notice was revised since its adoption in 1997. The draft revised Notice on Market Definition is an impressive piece of work, which makes clear strides in updating the Market Definition Notice for the future….

Investigations, Italy, Killer acquisitions, Mergers, Online platforms, Settlement

, (Portolano Cavallo)/ /Leave a comment

On August 5, 2022, the Italian Parliament adopted the 2021 Annual Law for Market and Competition (the “2021 Competition Law”), [1] the aim of which is to adapt the Italian system to EU competition rules and policies and to improve and liberalize markets affected by regulatory or economic barriers. The law reflects most of the…

Competition Law 2021, Damages, Digital economy, Dominance, Enforcement, Germany, Horizontal, Judicial review, Litigation, Merger control, Online platforms, Price fixing, Rebates, Uncategorized

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

The following is a selection of some of the most important developments in German competition law and policy in 2021.  It has been a busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”), inter alia because the new rules for digital companies took effect.  The following covers cases under these new rules, abuse of dominance, merger…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Algorithms, Digital economy, Digital markets, Digitisation, E-commerce, Effects-based, European Union, Evidence, General Court of the European Union, Google, Online advertising, Online platforms, Self-preferencing

(University of Mannheim)/ /1 Comment

The long-awaited Google Shopping judgment is out (see the press release here and the full decision here). The General Court has dismissed Google’s action almost in its entirety, upholding the fine of € 2.42 billion that the EU Commission issued in 2017 on the company for abusing its dominance as a search engine by favouring…

Antitrust, Apple, Big data, Competition enforcement, Digital competition, Digital economy, Digital markets, Dominance, Enforcement, Germany, Online platforms

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

In January 2021, the latest reform of the German competition law (“ARC”) entered into force, including significant new rules regarding digital platform markets.  These include new powers for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) under Section 19a ARC regarding digital gatekeepers with paramount cross-market significance for competition (for more details on the new norm, see here). A…

Abuse of dominance, Advertising, Brand Gating, Data protection, Digital markets, European Commission, European Union, Facebook, France, Germany, Italy, Merger control, Online advertising, Online platforms, Spain, United Kingdom

(Spieker & Jaeger)/ /Leave a comment

When we earlier reported the German Facebook proceedings in terms of a legal opera [Link], this metaphor was, as I am afraid we have to admit, a little ill-fitting. As things now seem, we can observe a whole oeuvre, a whole cinematic universe, as a good number of spin-offs, sequels and side-stories centred around Facebook…

Abuse of dominance, Digital economy, Online platforms, Russia

(Elbert, Nazaretsky, Rakov & Co)/ /1 Comment

On May 27, 2021, the Commercial Court of Moscow City backed the Federal Antimonopoly Services of Russia (FAS) in a case against HeadHunter, a platform that provides a job search service in Russia. HeadHunter had blocked clients from using the program Robot Vera from its competitor Stafori to automate recruitment services. Instead, HeadHunter offered its…