Designing a Cooperation Framework for Regulating Competition in Digital Markets – Lessons from Transnational Merger Control

Competition agencies should build on the existing and successful case-by-case cooperation framework used in assessing mergers that are notified in multiple jurisdictions and develop similar working practices when regulating competition in digital markets. In merger control we see an example of cooperation, coordination, and convergence that serves to streamline individual enforcement efforts and the mutual trust that is thereby generated can spill-over into discussions about the shape of competition law enforcement. This system also serves as a platform for learning about shared competition concerns and innovative methods for assessing competition concerns. Ex post review of regulatory solutions can serve to identify superior practices which each agency can then adopt.

By Giorgio Monti & Jasper van den Boom^[1]

I. INTRODUCTION

There is an increasing interest in regulating competition in digital markets, with amendments to some antitrust laws and new regulatory frameworks emerging in a number of jurisdictions. Some firms will face a kaleidoscope of rules and regulators controlling their conduct as agencies try and make markets work to achieve more competition and improve consumer welfare. It has been recognized by the G7 that some form of cooperation can serve to assist firms and regulators alike as they apply the new rules, in particular as the enforcers in these countries will be in the front line. What sort of cooperation framework might be adopted?

In the