This article makes a modest pitch: The Trump‑Vance Administration should hire venture capitalists (“VCs‑in‑Residence”) in antitrust agencies to help predict the trajectory of emerging technologies. Just as antitrust agencies enlisted technologists to understand the technology behind today’s challenges, they should now partner with VCs to anticipate the technology ahead. The Republican senator from Ohio declared:…
With the much-debated reforms to Act 19/2003 of 4 July, on capital movements (“Act 19/2003”), the Spanish foreign direct investment (“FDI”) regime has been expanded over the past few years. However, FDI screening in relation to defense investments predates Act 19/2003 (and the recent FDI hype more broadly), and was regulated in Royal Decree 664/1999…
Digital platforms behave as quasi-governments replacing regulators in their public duties of decision-making and rule-setting. To address this shift, legislators in different jurisdictions are adopting digital regulations across various fields, notably to curb digital market power or content moderation. The striking difference between these rules and those set out in the past lies in the…
By most indicators, the Generative AI or GenAI ecosystem is a dynamic and competitive space. GenAI is estimated to generate $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion in value for the global economy. There has been a substantial influx of venture capital investments backing innovative start-ups. Since ChatGPT launched in 2022, there are now more than 310 large…
Introduction Last week, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar delivered his Opinion in case C-253/23, a preliminary reference that stems from a form of collective private enforcement of competition law in Germany called the ‘assignment model’. This type of litigation is based on the fiduciary assignment of claims from a high number of persons or companies who…
Japan is now the fourth region in the World to have adopted complementary rules to its competition law regime to capture the power of Big Tech. Following Germany’s, the UK’s and the European Union’s steps, Japan in June the Act on Promotion of Competition for Specified Smartphone Software (for short, the Smartphone Software Competition Promotion…
Ever since its introduction in 2021, Section 19a of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen or “GWB”) has attracted attention, not only in Germany, but also around the globe. Through this provision, the national legislator strengthened the regulatory framework against potentially anti-competitive practices by specific market players, namely “undertakings of paramount…
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) introduced an innovative framework aimed at promoting contestability and fairness in digital markets. In addition to imposing a multitude of substantial obligations on gatekeepers, the DMA incorporates a sophisticated and multi-faceted enforcement system. The European Commission assumes the primary role as the enforcer of the DMA, while the Member States…
Is competition law fit for purpose? Do we need better tools to make markets fair? How far should government go to ‘fix’ market structures? It’s impossible to attend an antitrust conference these days without discussing these questions under the umbrella of competition & industrial policy. From decades of broad consensus championing competitive neutrality and ‘letting…
At the end of 2023, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“CPC”) issued a key decision related to an abuse of dominance case in the pharmaceutical sector. The decision, which is expected to have a significant impact on the parallel export of pharmaceuticals, provides a clue to the CPC’s approach when parallel export concerns…
