The data-driven investigation of potential antitrust violations has found more and more applications in recent years, including through the use of machine learning. However, the availability of labelled data to train algorithms proves to be an obstacle. In a new working paper, Valentin Förster, Jürgen Fleiß, Dominik Kowald and Vicky Robertson explore the use of unsupervised machine learning to detect Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) in price data. Their paper is available here.
Insights into the Vienna Competition Law Days 2024
In the current issue of the Austrian Competition Journal (Österreichische Zeitschrift für Kartellrecht), David Führer takes a look back at the Vienna Competition Law Days 2024, which The Hub hosted at the Vienna University of Economics and Business on 12 and 13 September 2024. He gives an overview of the workshop’s four panels and the ensuing discussions, as well as of Stavros Makris’s book talk. The article, in German, is available here.
Recommendation Algorithms as Antitrust Remedy
In a new working paper, Jana Lasser (IDea_lab, University of Graz) and Vicky Robertson discuss how alternative recommendation algorithms could be implemented as a remedy in antitrust and merger cases in the digital economy. Through four scenarios, they explore how this tool could remedy competition concerns that arise in relation to the quality of digital services, media pluralism, and weak competition in social media and digital news markets. A particular focus lies on how alternative recommendation algorithms can remedy competition concerns that simultaneously pose a threat to liberal democracy. They assess both the design and the monitoring of this complex type of remedy by competition authorities. Their working paper is available here.
Tech Plutocracy and Competition Law
Against the background of Big Tech’s growing influence with the US President, the Verfassungsblog is hosting a symposium brought together by Alberto Alemanno and Jacquelyn Veraldi, entitled ‘Musk, Power, and the EU: Can EU Law Tackle the Challenges of Unchecked Plutocracy?’. In her contribution to the symposium, Vicky Robertson draws on her recent research (see here, here, here and here) to explore what contribution competition law could make in keeping unseeming market power in check. You can access the contribution here.
Judicial Review in Competition Law
In the recent Mapping Judicial Review project, academics from the EU and UK assessed how national competition law decisions are judicially reviewed. Rupprecht Podszun was the rapporteur for Germany, while Vicky Robertson was the rapporteur for Austria. For a recent contribution published in the January 2025 edition of Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb (Competition Law and Economics), the two compared notes on their main findings. They identified some important differences: for instance, not all cases are published in Germany, while publication is required in Austria. German courts do not show a strong engagement with EU law, and the opposite is true for Austria. In Austria, the competition authorities have no decisional powers, while in Germany decision divisions at the Federal Cartel Office hand down decisions with considerable autonomy. The two rapporteurs conclude that competition law regimes may greatly benefit from mutual learnings, putting them in a better position to review the exercise of power – not only by companies, but also by competition authorities. Their contribution (in German) is available in open access here.
DMA Brochure for Tech Challengers
Vicky Robertson and Alexandre de Streel (Université de Namur) contributed to a new brochure on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) aimed at tech challengers (“business users”) and issued by the Belgian Competition Authority. After an in-depth consultation, the final brochure is now available in English, French and Flemish. It highlights the opportunities in digital markets that the DMA opens up, and how digital businesses could make use of them.
Digital Democracy and Competition Law
On 6 December 2024, Vicky Robertson will be discussing the interplay between democracy, competition law and digital markets at the OECD Competition Committee Roundtable on “The interaction between competition and democracy” in Paris. You can read the note she prepared for her intervention here.
The OECD’s Background Note on the topic is also already available here.
COVID-19 and State Aid in Aviation
Petar Petrov’s article on the annulment by the General Court of the German support scheme granted to Deutsche Lufthansa in the context of the COVID-19 crisis was recently published in Zeitschrift für Beihilferecht. Petar’s contribution (in German) can be retrieved here.
Dark Patterns: Antitrust or Criminal Law?
Fabian Ziermann's recent article, entitled ‘Dark patterns: Can criminal law remedy the shortcomings of antitrust law?’ was published in the New Journal of European Criminal Law. The article examines how Austrian criminal law can address dark patterns in Big Tech and video games that mislead users to make purchases. Fabian argues that antitrust law may not be sufficient to curb these practices, illustrated by Amazon's marketplace, Google's search, and Activision Blizzard's (now Microsoft's) in-game purchases in video games. He proposes and tests whether dark patterns constitute criminal fraud under §§ 146, 148 of the Austrian Criminal Code.
The open access article is available here.
International Competition Law?
In the new and expanded edition of the Elgar Encyclopedia of International Economic Law, edited by Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer and Thomas Cottier, Vicky Robertson contributed a chapter on “International Competition Law?”, tracing attempts at harmonizing competition law on an international (UNCTAD, WTO) as well as on a regional (ECOWAS, EU, COMESA, CUSMA, OECD) level. She also addresses the work of the International Competition Network (ICN) as an informal inter-agency network, and the extraterritorial application of competition law. The chapter can be accessed here.
Judicial Review in Austria
Vicky Robertson’s chapter on the judicial review of competition law decisions in Austria was just published by Kluwer Law. It focuses on the review of Cartel Court decisions by the Supreme Cartel Court since the entering into force of Regulation 1/2003. The chapter is part of a pan-European project that studied the judicial review of the public enforcement of competition law in all EU Member States as well as the UK, and uncovered patterns of judicial review as well as opportunities for harmonisation. The Austrian part of the project was supported by funding from the Austrian Federal Competition Authority. The book is available here, and the Austrian chapter is also available on SSRN.
Bid Rigging and Computational Antitrust
In the Yearbook on Digitalization and Law 2024, Franziska Guggi discusses the possibilities of computational antitrust for uncovering bid rigging, especially against the background of the Austrian construction cartel. She argues that cartel screens, as for example used by the Swiss competition authority, could also prove useful for the Austrian Federal Competition Authority in its future work. Both the large amount of data obtained from the investigations into the construction cartel and the requirements of the Austrian Federal Procurement Act, which calls for the publication of results for certain tenders, provide a good basis for such efforts. The Yearbook can be obtained here.