CASE COMMENTS: GENERAL ANTITRUST - EUROPEAN UNION - NEW COMPETITION TOOL - PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS

The European Commission releases the outcome of the first public consultation on a possible new competition tool

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Reference

European Commission (EC), Press release IP/20/977, Antitrust: Commission consults stakeholders on a possible new competition tool, June 2, 2020 (accessed November 20, 2020)

The European Commission (hereinafter “the Commission”) is seeking views on how to adapt EU competition law to the digital economy. Against this background, on June 2, 2020, the Commission published two public consultations on a potential New Competition Tool (NCT) and a potential ex ante asymmetric regulation against large online platforms (DSA). The NCT is a market investigation instrument to deal with structural competition problems. The DSA is a regulation that governs the behavior of large online platforms with a list of interdictions and obligations. Both tools will be merged into a single legislative framework, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The legislative proposal is expected to be published on December 9, 2020. However, it is already possible to get insights on the NCT as the Commission has released the outcome of the public consultation (but not yet about the DSA). Is a New Competition Tool necessary? And if yes, how? This paper answers these questions by analyzing the data concerning the policy options (section I) and institutional set-up (section II).

Introduction 1. The European Commission (hereinafter “the Commission”) is seeking views on how to adapt EU competition law to the digital economy. Against this background, on June 2, 2020, the Commission published two public consultations on a potential New Competition Tool (NCT) and a potential ex ante asymmetric regulation against large online platforms (DSA). [1] The NCT is a market investigation instrument to deal with structural competition problems. The DSA is a regulation that governs the behavior of large online platforms with a list of interdictions and obligations. Both tools will be merged into a single legislative framework, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The legislative proposal is expected to be published on December 9, 2020. However, it is already possible to get insights

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