Regulation of The Digital Sector: Should Merger or Dominance Control be Preferred? This was the central theme of an insightful panel at the Concurrences “Digital Antitrust” event on Regulation of the Digital Sector, bringing together perspectives from the EU, France, and the US.
Our partner Pascale Déchamps joined Eshien Chong (Autorité de la concurrence), Olivier Fréget (Fréget Glaser & Associés), and Luca Prete (Court of Justice of the European Union) for a timely discussion moderated by Professor David Bosco (Aix-Marseille University). With cases like Google Android Auto, Apple ATT and Google cases in the US, tackling dominant positions remains at the top of the global antitrust agenda.
Pascale shared her insights on trade-offs between ex-ante and ex-post intervention and the complementarity of policy instruments. Ex ante and ex post competition tools each have strengths and limits; ex post works well for cartels but is less effective for digital market abuses, where ex ante measures can prevent irreversible harm.
She also touched on the Apple ATT decision as an example of a case based on an exploitative abuse, without any injunction imposed at the end. Today, exploitative abuses are about non-pricing practices, like access restrictions and design, especially in digital markets.
