Protection of competition and consumers in digital markets

The course deals with the key legal issues which underpin the development of digital markets, with a particular focus on how competition and consumers are protected in the EU internal market.

Digital markets are becoming increasingly important. In this context, technological advances have reshaped the way competition in the market unfolds and consumers are exposed to new risks and vulnerabilities.

This course explores how competition and consumers are protected in market economies, with a particular attention on digital markets. The focus of the course is Europe (the EU and the main EU Member States) but the discussion is contrasted with the experiences of non-European countries including the US and Asian countries in the context of globalisation and international trade.

The course examines the regulatory framework governing business competition, identifying and analysing the limitations and challenges that exist in this regard. In particular, it examines anti-competitive practices such as cartels, vertical restraints and monopolies. It also explains how mergers are controlled by competition authorities and when state aid to private companies is impermissible. Moreover, the course analyses the rules that protect consumers from misinformation and manipulation by companies.

The course is based on real case studies taken mainly from the digital domain and involving world-renowned companies such as Google, Amazon or Facebook.

• Slaughter and May, An overview of the EU competition rules, A general overview of the European competition rules applicable to cartels, abuse of dominance, forms of commercial cooperation, merger control and State aid, May 2021

• Ariel Ezrachi, EU Competition Law Goals and the Digital Economy, Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 17/2018

• Laura Zoboli and Mariateresa Maggiolino, Smart Mobility and Technological Compatibility from an Antitrust Perspective, in Smart Urban Mobility - Law, Regulation, and Policy (Michèle Finck, Matthias Lamping, Valentina Moscon and Heiko Richter ed.), Springer, 2020

• Maciej Bernatt, Competition Law and the Digital Economy: Poland, 2019

• European Parliamentary Research Service, Consumer protection in the EU – Policy Overview, PE 565.904, 2015.

• Press releases of key cases distributed at the start of the course.

Considering the rapidly changing subject matter of the course, the assigned readings may be revised throughout the semester.

Materials will be available on the University’s website. The link and the password to access the materials will be shared during the first lecture of the course.

These materials are only for class use. Further dissemination is prohibited.

After completing the course, a student will be able to:

- Understand the main challenges to competition in market economies and discuss the basic rules of competition law;

- Frame the key rules to protect consumers from firms’ behaviour;

- Comment on real cases and understand their relevance from the perspective of other businesses.

Active participation in the course and two open questions to be answered in written by 15 days after the end of the course. Students will have to demonstrate that they master the issues discussed during the course and apply them within the framework of the two open questions, one of which will be theoretical, the other scenario alike.

The assessment consists of 10% class participation (0.5 points) and 90% of the written essay (4,5 points). A score of 50% is required to pass.