Interview with Tom Fish, Head of public policy and research at Gener8, and formerly Assistant Director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority

Tom Smith, Geradin Partners: November 2022 was an important month for the UK’s efforts to curb the power of big tech. The Chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill will be introduced into parliament in the 3rd parliamentary session (it is currently rumoured to be scheduled for April … Continue reading Interview with Tom Fish, Head of public policy and research at Gener8, and formerly Assistant Director at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority

Making sense of NCAs’ roles under the DMA – The Dutch proposal

In the run-up to the enactment of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission strongly defended its exclusive jurisdiction to enforce it. Despite valiant efforts on the part of several national competition authorities (NCAs) who wanted a formal role enforcing the new rules, the Commission’s exclusive competence remains largely in place in the … Continue reading Making sense of NCAs’ roles under the DMA – The Dutch proposal

The DMA is coming. Here’s what it will mean for mobile gaming

The App Store and Play Store are huge profit generators for Apple and Google. As explained by Judge Gonzalez Rogers in her Epic v Apple judgment of September 2021, gaming apps account for approximately 70% of all App Store revenues. According to some, this means that Apple makes more money from games than Microsoft, Sony, … Continue reading The DMA is coming. Here’s what it will mean for mobile gaming

The Responsible Online Commerce Coalition (ROCC): Businesses team up to ensure a level playing field in e-commerce

Amazon’s revenues reached half a trillion dollars in 2022, having increased tenfold in a decade. There are few companies as fascinating and impressive as Amazon and arguably no other company occupies such a central position in the modern retail economy in the US and Europe. Its famous e-commerce platform represents more than half of e-commerce … Continue reading The Responsible Online Commerce Coalition (ROCC): Businesses team up to ensure a level playing field in e-commerce

Platform antitrust/regulation in 2023: Our eleven predictions

Happy New Year to all! The authors of this blog wish you the best for what will be a thrilling year for those interested in platforms. It has never been more exciting to operate in the tech space. To start the new year, we have put our heads together to make eleven predictions about 2023. … Continue reading Platform antitrust/regulation in 2023: Our eleven predictions

Amazon settles EU allegations regarding third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace: some progress made but much remains to be done

The European Commission has accepted a set of legally-binding commitments offered by Amazon to settle two long-running antitrust investigations into whether Amazon has abused its dominant position in e-commerce.  In doing so, the Commission will not issue a formal infringement decision and will not impose a fine.   This is a significant outcome for these … Continue reading Amazon settles EU allegations regarding third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace: some progress made but much remains to be done

The draft Implementing Regulation of the Digital Markets Act: Initial thoughts

On Friday 9 December 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) published three documents relating to the implementation of the Digital Markets Act. The draft implementing regulation, which provides further practical details as to the implementation of the DMA; Annex 1, which is the Form GD (for gatekeeper designation); and Annex 2, which deals with the format … Continue reading The draft Implementing Regulation of the Digital Markets Act: Initial thoughts

Why it is now clear that the Australian ex ante regime will be much closer to the proposed UK regime than the EU Digital Markets Act

On 11 November 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (“ACCC”) released the fifth interim report for the Digital Platform Services inquiry (the “Interim Report”). This report recommends a range of new measures to address harms from digital platforms to Australian consumers, small businesses and competition. The diagnostic of the ACCC is not different from … Continue reading Why it is now clear that the Australian ex ante regime will be much closer to the proposed UK regime than the EU Digital Markets Act

The DMA has been published: Now the real challenges start

The Digital Market Act (“DMA”) has been published today. It is a remarkable instrument in many ways. Since the publication of the Commission proposal in December 2020, it took less than 1.5 years for the Council and the Parliament to agree on the final text. The supersonic adoption of the DMA was due to several … Continue reading The DMA has been published: Now the real challenges start

Antitrust is turning its eye to gaming

Last week, I spoke at the Video Games Bar Association’s annual summit which took place at devcom in Cologne, Germany. The event confirmed to me that gaming is where the innovative technologies of the future are in many ways already a reality today. It was my contention at the conference that competition law is turning … Continue reading Antitrust is turning its eye to gaming