From the More Economic Approach to the More Digital and Data-Driven (DDD) Approach: Enforcing Competition Law in the Digital Era

The fourth industrial revolution is based on two main elements: development of cutting-edge technologies with the wide-spread use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the growing significance of data. Competition enforcement law should reflect these economic and societal changes and update its economic approach, which was introduced over twenty years ago. This contribution proposes a novel approach to competition law which takes into consideration the two factors that characterise the digital revolution: AI and data. The “more Digital and Data-Driven (DDD) approach” to competition law stands on three pillars. The first pillar considers data protection as a parameter to assess anti competitive behaviours also in the light of the latest jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. The second pillar embraces the opportunities presented by technologies and encourages competition authorities to adopt new digital enforcement tools with AI and machine learning features. The third pillar is based on the importance of cooperation in the form of data sharing between private companies and competition authorities (B2G data sharing) and between enforcers (G2G data sharing). Besides looking at the benefits of implementing a new digital and data-driven approach, pros and cons need to be carefully assessed and legal challenges analyzed.

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