Competition Law in Digital Era – How to Define the Relevant Market?

Patakyová, Mária

doi:10.31410/eman.2020.171

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Methods used for market definition are usually categorised to two groupsquantitative (comprising SSNIP test and SSNDQ test) and qualitative methods (Patakyová, 2020). Each of the methods has its advantages and disadvantages (Patakyová, 2020) and, as a matter of fact, there is no perfect method universally applicable to all cases.…”

Section: Methods Of Market Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To use the qualitative method of relevant market definition means to focus on distinctive characteristics of products (Patakyová, 2020); among them the Commission emphasises functionality and use of the products/services, 20 conditioning their substitutability. In Google Search (Shopping) case, the Commission concluded that comparison shopping services constitute a distinctive relevant product market, not including merchant platforms or offline shopping comparison tools that "cannot provide users with the same amount of information, level of reactivity and service as comparison shopping service."…”

Section: Qualitative Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relevant Market - Digital Challenges

Kalesná

2023

Brat. L. Rev.

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Market definition is a specific and important tool used in European competition enforcement practice to identify boundaries of competition between undertakings; it is used both in antitrust and merger cases. The EU Market Definition Notice was adopted in 1997 in conditions of conventional markets with relatively stable market structures. With respect to recent development, especially digitalisation and globalisation of economy, the Commission launched the process of evaluation of the Notice in March 2020, and the revised notice has to be published in Q3 2023. Having in mind profound changes challenging various aspects of the original market definition, the article lists at first the most important features of digital economy, especially importance of innovation conditioning rapid changes of the market. Regarding the fact that the main principles of market definition were confirmed as sound until now, the short characteristics of the relevant market follow. The core part of the article aims to present and discuss different approaches to market definition, methods of market assessment included, taking into account the corresponding case law and legal writings reflecting digital circumstances making markets interconnected like never before. The article confronts also sometimes differing opinions of theory and practice in approach to market definition. Analysis is carried out with the ambition to find out whether it is possible – based on case specific approach of competition authorities – to draw general conclusions necessary for coherent conception of the revised market definition, or at least unifying recommendations for the legal practice for the sake of legal certainty. Outcomes of the analysis are summarised in the conclusion, in context with the draft market definition notice.

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Section: Methods Of Market Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Qualitative Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relevant Market - Digital Challenges

Kalesná

2023

Brat. L. Rev.

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“…Например, в рамках данного теста может оцениваться поведение пользователей в случае изменения производительности платформы или объема собираемых персональных данных. Кроме того, измерение качества услуг может быть весьма субъективным и требовать доступа к большому объему информации (Patakyová, 2020).…”

Section: второй этап -разработка нормативных правил конкуренции на ци...unclassified

The evolution of antimonopoly regulation of digital platforms

Arutyunyan

Berbeneva²

2022

DLJ

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This paper provides comprehensive analysis of the evolution of approaches to antimonopoly regulation of digital market participants, the so-called “digital platforms”. So far business practices of digital platforms and their compliance with the antitrust rules have been widely studied by both the watchdogs of various countries and the expert community. However, a few years ago the research into these issues was not that thorough neither in science nor in practice Today, with sufficient experience on regulation of digital markets, legal acts are being drawn up in various jurisdictions that cover approaches to assessing the market position of digital platforms, as well as acceptable and unacceptable practices. Besides, specific control mechanisms are being designed to deter antitrust violations in digital markets. At the same time, digital technologies are evolving too fast. This will inevitably pose new challenges to regulators and science. New digital services, business models and options for expanding markets, for example, by developing ecosystem products, will appear. The paper presents analysis of the main stages in the development of antimonopoly regulation of digital markets: from the first antitrust cases against IT-companies to creation of special regulatory and control mechanisms of digital platforms. Furthermore, potential development of digital markets and their antitrust regulation both in Russia and abroad is considered. The paper offers review of legal acts and regulatory initiatives in the area of digital markets in different regions worldwide and refers to the key antitrust cases that have affected the regulatory approaches.

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“…From the Commission's report one may conclude that the proposed way is to rather focus on the theories of harm and indication of anticompetitive strategies than on the strict definition of the relevant market. This seems to be an elegant solution, however, it is not clear how the need for the relevant market definition can be circumvented in a competition law analysis (Patakyová, 2020a).…”

Section: The Antitrust Part Of Eu Competition Law and Digitalisation-an Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Digitalisation and Competition Law Enforcement in Slovakia

Patakyová

2021

TalTech Journal of European Studies

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Digitalisation is a challenge from the regulatory point of view. Competition law, as a special type of regulation, is no exception to this. The article explores the risks of digitalisation, especially the ones related to the enhanced use of pricing algorithms. In theory, pricing algorithms are not easily assessed from the perspective of competition law, let alone its application in practice. The prohibition of anticompetitive agreements (pursuant to Article 101 of the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)) is applied with certain difficulty to agreements created by using pricing algorithms. This is an unfortunate situation, as horizontal agreements represent one of the worst infringements of EU competition law, including price cartels or bid rigging. Apart from presenting a theoretical background, the article dives into the practice of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (AMO) in order to assess which practical issues the AMO might face when applying the theoretical concepts. In sum, the article asks from a theoretical perspective which issues of competition law have been introduced (or deepened) by the enhanced digitalisation, looking in particular to pricing algorithms. On top of that, the article explores the issues which may be encountered in practice, taking the Slovak jurisdiction as the example. The willingness and feasibility of the AMO to enforce digital issues such as pricing algorithms is assessed based on the previous acts of the AMO as well as the new Act on Protection of Competition, adopted by the Slovak parliament on 11 May 2021.

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Competition Law in Digital Era – How to Define the Relevant Market?

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

Relevant Market - Digital Challenges

Relevant Market - Digital Challenges

The evolution of antimonopoly regulation of digital platforms

Enhanced Digitalisation and Competition Law Enforcement in Slovakia

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