No full text
Unpublished conference/Abstract (Scientific congresses and symposiums)
The roles of competition law in a regulated digital market environment: lessons (not) to learn from related fields of EU regulation
Van Cleynenbreugel, Pieter
2017Radboud 2nd Economic Law Conference - Digital Markets in the EU
 

Files


Full Text
No document available.

Send to



Details



Abstract :
[en] Within the framework of its Digital Single Market (DSM) agenda, the European Union proposes the adoption of new legislative proposals aimed at removing remaining obstacles to digital transactions. Proposals relate to the abolition of geo-blocking as well as data and copyright portability. Complementing competition law provisions, those initiatives would seek to create the conditions for a competitive e-commerce environment within the EU internal market. In doing so, the Commission implicitly but clearly seeks to replicate a regulatory and policy approach it had taken already from the 1990s onwards when liberalising the energy and electronic communication sectors. It can be submitted that the European Commission, in proposing its DSM regulation strategy and in setting the terms of its e-commerce sector inquiry, has paid insufficient attention so far to the various and complementary roles competition law can play in a more strictly regulated market environment. In an attempt to clarify the scope and role of EU competition law and its enforcement in a digital single market environment and to guarantee its coherent application with the proposed DSM regulations, this paper will reflect on the roles competition law can our should still play in this context. Proceeding in three parts, the first part of the paper will chart the interaction between competition law and market regulation proposals in the EU’s DSM context. Using examples from the geo-blocking, data portability and copyright proposals made, this part highlights how the EU institutions perceive the interaction between competition law provisions and market regulation in this context. On the basis of that analysis, the second part will frame the interaction between competition law and market regulation as perceived in the DSM strategy, by comparing it with earlier examples in the realm of energy and electronic communications. In doing so, this part will identify two important similarities (breaking up barriers to trade and facilitating cross-border competition) as well as two fundamental differences (absence of natural monopolies and of intensely state regulated sectors). Acknowledging those similarities and differences, it will be submitted, allows better to conceptualise the role of competition law in the particular DSM context. To that extent, the third part will present and analyse the tenability of three possible roles competition law can still play against this background. Assessing the advantages and limits of each approach, that part will invite the Commission to take a clearer stance regarding the choice of one of them.
Disciplines :
European & international law
Author, co-author :
Van Cleynenbreugel, Pieter ;  Université de Liège > Département de droit > Droit matériel européen
Language :
English
Title :
The roles of competition law in a regulated digital market environment: lessons (not) to learn from related fields of EU regulation
Publication date :
09 June 2017
Event name :
Radboud 2nd Economic Law Conference - Digital Markets in the EU
Event organizer :
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Event place :
Nijmegen, Netherlands
Event date :
9 June 2017
Audience :
International
Available on ORBi :
since 06 April 2017

Statistics


Number of views
120 (2 by ULiège)
Number of downloads
0 (0 by ULiège)

Bibliography


Similar publications



Contact ORBi