Second day of ICN Annual Conference discusses unilateral conduct and digital markets

The second day of the 23rd International Competition Network (ICN) Annual Conference held a debate on unilateral conduct enforcement: current trends and challenges ahead. Ms Camila Pries Alves, commissioner of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), moderated the meeting that took place at Costa do Sauípe, in the state of Bahia, Brazil.  

She claimed that the debate focused on detailing unilateral conduct under diferent frames, the challenge to design strategies against illegal conduct, the impact of digital platforms on market dynamics, and innovative approaches to problems associated with competition.

Member of the European Parliament, Andreas Schwab, talked about unilateral conduct in Europe. According to him, antitrust authorities face considerable challenges to prove anticompetitive conduct and it can be even more difficult when it involves digital markets. “When you are ready to prove it [a conduct], you discover that companies have already changed their algorithms and programs”, he said. Mr Schwab summarised by saying that the current legal instruments are not suitable for dealing with digital markets.

The President of the French Competition Authority, Benoit Coeuré, also emphasised the downward trend in the use of traditional tools to fight anticompetitive conduct. “How can we keep these instruments alive?”, he said. “We need, first, to make full use of the competition toolbox, we need to articulate unilateral conduct instruments with excellent regulation, so we need a good complementarity between antitrust [authorities]”, he stated.

Ms Marisa Tierno, Senior Deputy of the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), also highlighted the country’s commitment against unilateral conduct, particularly in abuse of dominance cases. She claimed that the Spanish agency focuses on pharmaceuticals, energy, transport, energy, postal services, and digital media.

The representative of the Canadian Competition Bureau, Melanie Atiken, stressed that the country is revisiting its antitrust legislation and digital markets should be included in the new regulation. “These are incredibly difficult issues, I think particularly in the unilateral conduct”, she mentioned. “It is really important that we gather as you all here today to talk about these issues”, she said.

The Senior Deputy of the Swiss Competition Authority, Rikard Jermsten, highlighted the complexity of regulating new markets, which reinforces the need for dialogue and cooperation among international authorities. Mr Jermsten stated that the experience with digital markets showed that is important not to only fight old battles.

Competition in emerging markets

Members of The ICN Advocacy Working Group shared their experiences and perspectives on emerging markets during the panel “Conducting market studies to understand competition in emerging markets” featuring the Executive Director of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), Kenneth Tanate; the Commissioner of AGCM Italy, Saverio Valentino; the Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Ravneet Kaur; the Commissioner of Korea Fair Trade Commission, Sungsam Kim; and the NGA Lucía Ojeda, representative of the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece).

The panel discussed how studies may help to develop an understanding to provide two benefits: to support advocacy in government agencies due to the need for effective regulation in those markets and to strengthen competition authorities.

For Kenneth Tanate, panel moderator, due to technological advances in emerging markets, competition authorities, and regulatory bodies faces challenges on how to adhere to the law or to develop effective regulations, which is fundamental for a proper understanding of these markets.

The topic of Join Ventures

During the NGA Engagement panel, the President of CADE, Alexandre Cordeiro; the Vice-President of the Global Competition and Regulatory Policy at the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Krisztian Katona; and other non-governmental advisors (NGA’s) Frank Montag (Germany), Yan Yu (Hong Kong), and Anthony Ndzabandzaba (South Africa) provided an overview of joint ventures on merger cases, focusing on the most appropriate legal framework for regulation. Such cases, with different frames and goals, are  means of sharing resources and competitive risks between companies in pursuit of similar goals. Although it often promotes innovation and competition, it may also raise complex competition concerns. Therefore, there must be clear distinctions between pro-competitive and potential anticompetitive transactions. Through expert knowledge and comparative analysis, the panel aimed to identify the best practices and potential regulatory issues.

According to Mr Cordeiro, joint ventures are important to promote innovation, market entry, and cost efficiency and the exchange of experiences is an important exercise to improve forecasts and efficiency in these cases. “It is important to debate competition matters of joint ventures, from procedures, complexity, merger notifications, to substantial worries caused by regulation framework and possible issues”, he said.

Awards

At the end of the second day, the winners of the Competition Advocacy 2024 awards were announced. “This is a special year because we celebrate the tenth anniversary of this contest, a result of a partnership between the ICN, the World Bank Group, and the Italian Competition Authority”, said the ICN president, Andreas Mundt.

The awards were given to the Superintendencia de Competencia de El Salvador; the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC); the Portuguese Competition Authority; the Turkish Competition Authority; the New Zealand Commerce Commission; the Hong Kong Competition Commission; the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission; the Egyptian Competition Authority, and the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The closing session is scheduled to May 17. The event is broadcast live  on CADE’s Youtube Channel. Access the conference website and learn more.