Who will guard the gatekeepers? The Commission, the Digital Economy and the proposed New Competition Tool

Big tech has been firmly in the sights of competition authorities around the world for a decade. The European Commission is consulting on a “New Competition Tool” which would give the EC sweeping regulatory powers to tackle perceived threats to the digital economy and possibly markets generally.

If adopted, the New Tool will be the most significant reform to EU competition law in over 30 years. Blurring the lines between competition and regulatory policy, the New Tool is intended to change the ‘rules of the game’. If adopted, it would enable the EC to step in and reinforce competition in markets suffering from, or prone to, structural competition problems before anti-competitive conduct occurs. The Tool would transform the regulation of markets, particularly digital markets, enabling the Commission to intervene in a far wider array of circumstances.

Our joint paper with Compass Lexecon entitled Who will guard the gatekeepers?  sets out our analysis of:

• the problems that the EC is attempting to tackle;
• its proposed policy options;
• the challenges the Commission will need to overcome.