“Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation”

Posted by Europa

‘Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation’

On 17 January 2019, Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition, will host a one-day conference featuring a keynote speech by Nobel laureate Professor Jean Tirole, in Brussels on ‘Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation’.

As Commissioner Vestager said in a speech on 18 September 2017, being open to new ideas is especially important now because markets are going through enormous changes as a result of continuing technological developments.

This is why Commissioner Vestager appointed a panel of three advisers from outside the Commission. The panel is made up of Professors Heike Schweitzer, Jacques Crémer and Assistant Professor Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye. They are working on a report on the future challenges of digitisation for competition policy, to be delivered by 31 March 2019.

Commissioner Vestager has also announced her intention to organize a conference to discuss the topic with a broad variety of contributors.

The conference will feature a keynote speech by Professor Jean Tirole and will include four panel discussions. The topics of the panel discussions are outlined here. The conference will be web streamed here. The video will remain available also after the event.

The conference and the report from the Special Advisers are designed to provide input to the Commission’s ongoing reflection process about how competition policy can best serve European consumers in a fast-changing world. The conference may also help to identify problems and solutions as markets go through rapid changes. The objective is to identify the key upcoming digital challenges and their implications for competition policy.

In this context, the European Commission sought contributions in particular from those stakeholders that are involved in or affected by the digitisation of the economy. These contributions will also serve to inform and feed into the discussions at the conference.

The Commission has now also launched a Student challenge to hear from future competition experts and professionals.

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