Paris

Does artificial intelligence create illegal cartels?

Dinner organised by Concurrences Review with keynote speaker Ariel Ezrachi (Oxford University), in partnership with Me Patrick Hubert (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe).

Synthesis

Patrick Hubert

Ariel Ezrachi is Professor at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Center for Competition Law and Policy. His works are famous. In one of them, Virtual Competition, he and co-author Maurice E. Stucke identified and studied the consequences of the use of artificial intelligence on competition systems, in particular cartels formed by price algorithms. In so doing, he anticipated the praetorian construction of new competition offences.

Ariel Ezrachi

In the early stages of the development of the digital age, technological activities have changed competitive dynamics. Artificial intelligence is a major disruptive factor in the digital economy; it has changed the competitive environment. This calls for a rethinking of the legal instruments available to competition authorities and the competition policies implemented by those authorities. We are currently going through a transitional period characterised by great uncertainty. For example, this uncertainty concerns the regulation of digital platforms which, by means of the processing of masses of data (big data) and the analysis of this data (data analytics), could prevent the emergence of new players. It also stems from the challenges posed by the collection and use of data with regard to privacy and non-discrimination requirements. Another example of this great uncertainty is that related to new risks of collusion.

Photos © Léo-Paul Ridet

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