Resilience and Competition

 

The cutting-edge CMA just published this Report. 

Google enjoys paramount significance for competition across markets

The 173-page decision by the Bundeskartellamt determining Google's status of addressee of Section 19 (a) GWB has been published and even translated into English. The company's "paramount significance for competition across markets" has been confirmed (and accepted by Google itself). Much to read and ponder on (already not clear - at least to me -  how much Google in the end had to pay for the proceedings). 

Antitrust Olympus

Cristina Caffarra of CRA has single-handedly (as far as I "know" her) organized an impressive Conference with the Gods of our field  You can also join it virtually (as I'll be doing, thanks). 

An Historic Press Conference (with a Brandeisian reference): Break them open [but keep the break up option on the table]

Here.

Habemus the Digital Markets Act

 

On 24 March 2004 the European Commission fined Microsoft for abuse of dominant position (H/T Lewis Crofts). 18 years (age of maturity) later  on the same day, the Digital Markets Act was conclusively negotiated within the Trialogue. Papers and books will be written. 

In parallel to the final negotiations, a DMA panel was taking place at the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (MaCCI). With Inge Graef (Tilburg), Silke Hoffenfelder (Bundeskartellamt) and myself (Trento), moderated by Jens-Uwe Franck (Mannheim). The ones on the panel truly enjoyed it, unsure about the audience. A recording will be available soon.

On the eve of the DMA’s 4th Trialogue: A Twitter 🧵(not for the faint-hearted)

 Here.

« Wouldn’t it be nice to solve all such problems in one go? »

 

…famously said the former Competition  Commissioner Neelie Kroes in the long aftermath of the EU Microsoft case referring to interoperability issues caused by Big Tech. More than a decade after Kroes expressed that wish, the DMA moves exactly in this direction, with mandated interoperability for ancillary services *and* for so called horizontal interoperability of instant messaging (albeit limited to one-to-one communications with late openings with regard to group chats and calls), as it has been reported by the FT and Politico today.  More could be done, and the devil will likely be in the technical details of the obligations, of course, but it’d be a promising beginning. 

Competition law in war times

 Perhaps due to miopia, this is something we wouldn’t have expected to see in our so far rather peaceful European Union. The European Competition Network has just published a “ Joint statement by the European Competition Network (ECN) on the application of competition law in the context of the war in Ukraine”. 

A patron of digital competition

At the end of January, Google launched a "new dedicated Digital Assets Team". Today, Politico reported that "a group of progressive advocates are pushing Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the head of the House Financial Services Committee, to hold a hearing on Google’s" new blockchain plans. As reported by Politico, differently from Facebook's grand plan with Libra/Diem, Google "is...looking to create a broader blockchain infrastructure that could be used by a wide variety of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, and stressed that Google doesn’t “want to take sides in backing any specific currency.” Should we worry? Will the DMA protect us? Antitrust and financial minds in particular will likely need to come together to discuss this. If St. Isidore of Seville (painting: as imagined by Murillo) is the unofficial patron saint of the Internet, we could use a patron of digital competition too. Any candidate? 

One step ahead? The Italian Competition Authority sends detailed requests for information to major oil companies

 

After Germany and other countries, the Italian Autorità aims "to investigate the reasons for these increases and, if so, to assess whether there is scope for possible intervention limited only to the hypothesis of a possible infringement of the rules on abuse of a dominant position or agreements restricting competition"

Quo vadis, DMA?

 

Are we fiddling while competition processes in the digital economy are "burning"? Not quite, according to the excellent Speakers at a conference which took place today (also online and for free, many thanks), organized by Concurrences. (BTW, this is not a conference debriefing à la  D'Kart, so don't expect to be informed while being entertained). The urgency we are in, however, was clearly expressed by Andreas Mundt by saying that "we don't have the time to wait for Court decisions". He also expanded on the many ways in which "his" 19a GWB was way better than the DMA. My conference-tweeting as stream of consciousness starts here. 

Among the many enriching statements and discussions, voilà some points that were particularly dear to me.  

1) The DMA is already part of a broader picture: this was directly recalled by Thibault Schrepel in the first panel and indirectly in the third panel while discussing the competition issues related to the Internet of Things (see the Data Act in particular).

 

2) In order to properly enforce the DMA, we need a lot of data scientists. A figure, you ask? Out of the 220 staff suggested by Andreas Schwab, at least 50, proposes Yann Guthmann of the French competition authority (#moretechnologicalapproach as advocated since a famous Munich Conference - not that one). 

3) Almost everybody still wondered what contestability and fairness actually meant. I would have preferred openness instead of contestability, which economically has a very precise and perhaps not very helpful meaning in this context. But, c'est la vie! At any rate, contestability/openness and fairness point to a process rather than to an outcome (e.g., low prices), which is excellent. 

4) Le diable se cache dans les détails of the DMA. Indeed, big date for final negotiations 24th March - lightning speed according to Margrethe Vestager, we'll see...

5) Avis cloud computing of the Adlc: beginning 2023. Competition enforcement only after that date, if necessary? (And: see again Data Act).

6) Lawyers (especially those in private practice) expect aspire to DMA litigations from Day One. This is new stuff, vehemently opposed by some the most powerful  companies in the world.  Along similar lines, Andreas Mundt is already quite concerned about the Court's (only *one* and not too unresponsive, generally) expectations regarding how Sec. 19a should be applied. Google settled, but what about the other gatekeepers potentially in scope? 

7) We need (also) to discuss public interest in the DMA, beyond contestability and fairness. 

8) There might even be court-sponsored spillovers from the DMA to competition law (see the Google Shopping ruling for inspiration). 

We will again be discussing the DMA next week in Mannheim, I am afraid (exactly on the 24th).

Teuer, expensive, chère, cara...

Robert Habeck, the German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate, asked the German Competition Authority (per Tweet?) to assess weather mineral oil companies were behaving abusively ("Could be"). The Bundeskartellamt replied by press release (only in German at the time of writing). The Authority is not concerned with oil price swings per se, but "[I]f crude oil prices now fall again and petrol station prices do not follow suit or even rise further, we have to take a close look. This includes several market levels: from the crude oil market to the refineries and wholesalers to the petrol station operators." How national are these markets (still) today, actually? 

MGM's Bauchschmerzen

 

The European Commission approved Amazon's acquisition of MGM Holdings Inc. Personally, I felt some Bauchschmerzen. 

Meta's exclusionary conduct in South Africa referred to the Competition Tribunal

 

We have a press release and a very nice interview with Competition Commissioner Bonakele (with a shut out to Sec. 19a GWB). 

Net Zero-relevant markets

The CMA has launched a Sustainability Taskforce, namely "a cross-organisational taskforce dedicated to sustainability issues". Among other things, it commits to "launching at least 1 new market study in a Net Zero-relevant market in the next financial year".

Libra's Post-Mortem - Novi Resuscitati?

The CFPB's Director, Rohit Chopra, gave a TV interview yesterday. While Libra might be no more, he made clear that "cryptocurrencies + Big Tech" might still pose issues and that the Biden administration is getting ready to anticipate them. 

One of Biden Executive Order's Many Sprouts

President Biden's Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy never stops giving. The US Department of Agriculture has just announced that "[a]s part of its efforts to enhance fair and competitive markets, USDA is requesting comments and information from the public about the impacts of concentration and market power in fertilizer, seeds and other agricultural inputs, and retail" 

Byzantine splits

One of the strangest things about US antitrust policy to my European eyeballs has always been the byzantine split between the FTC and the DOJ on merger enforcement. Interagency collaboration as well as the very hot discussions on modernizing merger guidelines are on the agenda of an upcoming Spring Enforcers Summit (4 April). 

I need that source.

 At a panel organized during the Industrial Organization Meeting, Spring 2022, Carl Shapiro famously called himself a Modernist and others New Brandeisians (see here, fn. 7). While the recordings of the other panels are still available (one click away on the meeting's website), this is not (while it has been for a while: I caught up a few hours after the panel took place). This is a real pity for us interested in following the recent developments in antitrust policy thinking. Please NBER, put it up again. 

Stellar Wars in the Antitrust Sky?

The antitrust news of the day so far (10. 52 AM CET) is the parallel opening of investigations in the UK and the EU into the Jedi Blue allegation. Interestingly, the CMA is signalling again that the DMU politicians' time is up, this time by starting "scrutinising Google’s conduct in relation to header bidding services more widely to see if the firm abused a dominant position and gained an unfair advantage over competitors trying to provide a similar service".

Message to my Students & Others

 Dear all,

This blog/feed has always been for us to be well informed. Sadly, I'm no longer able to update it - simply too much going on. I might be transitioning it to a real blog.