Competition and Regulatory Challenges in Digital Markets: How to Tackle the Issue of Self-Preferencing?

The communication presented at the 3rd conference of the Instituto Brasileiro de Concorrência e Inovaçãos (IBCI)is published in a collective book edited by Eduardo Gaban and Vinicius Klein. This chapter deals with self-preferencing issues. It has been written in the context of the EU Commission proposal of a Digital Markets Act. The November 10th 2021 judgment of the EU General Court had upheld the Commission’s decision in Google Shopping (June 2017), which can be analyzed as a self-preferencing case.

Please find a short abstract of the chapter and a link toward the book:

This contribution deals with the application of competition rules in the digital sector and, in particular, the distortions that can result from self-preferencing strategies. In the context of the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act project and the UK’s plans to regulate the major digital ecosystems, the aim is to examine the relative effectiveness of the current effects-based approach stemming from competition law enforcement, the use of per-se rules, the implementation of specific regulation or the imposition of structural remedies to address such risks. It is a question of insisting on the objectives pursued (maximisation of consumer welfare, dynamic efficiency, contestability of market positions and fairness) and on the conditions for the implementation of hybrid approaches combining the logic of sectoral regulation and procedures rooted in the enforcement of competition rules.

“Competition and Regulation Challenges in Digital Markets: How to Tackle the Issue of Self-Preferencing?”, in Molan Gaban E. and Klein V., eds, Concorrência e Inovaçãos: Reflexões e Insights, Instituto Brasileiro de Concorrência e Inovaçãos, November 2021, pp.109–141.