Restoring Balance to Digital Competition – Sensible Rules, Effective Enforcement

Abstract

How do we re-set the balance so that genuine innovation and choice prevail, and all businesses have an equal opportunity to compete in the marketplace? And how do we ensure that consumers are not digital serfs -mere inputs into the tech giants' offerings -but instead are 'king and queen' of the competitive marketplace?Effective enforcement must keep pace with market dynamics, as the authors remind us and ask for sensible and flexible rules.Marsden and Podszun present a clear view of what institutional design may guarantee it.While they do not question a move in the direction of a stronger regulatory framework, they call into attention which learnings from the GDPR-enactment must be kept in mind in order to keep the framework functional.While recommending advanced rules for platforms, they maintain a forward looking approach and explain the disadvantages when policy bases it regulatory rules on preceding competition cases.Europe can restore digital competition if the new tools serve their purpose.This study offers clear guidelines for European policy makers on how to overcome the regulatory time lag and enable authorities to react quickly. Pencho KuzevExecutive Summary privacy guarantees are upheld and balanced.To do nothing is not an option.First, because the inequities of the imbalances of power will only worsen.Second, because this in turn would lead to political calls for vast regulatory change which could stultify what are undoubted exciting and vibrant markets.What is needed -we argue -are sensible rules, backed up with effective enforcement.We thus make the following proposals: Relying on ex post law enforcement is insufficient: we urgently need new rules, and new institutional capabilities to guarantee effective enforcement.We distil from expert work core principles to guide these changes. The new rules should be based on three principles in particular: freedom of competition, fairness of intermediation and the sovereignty of economic actors to take their decisions autonomously.These principles are described intentionally as having a constitutional character and importance and thus should be the foundation of any new EU regulation in this area. These principles inform our new sensible rules -or 'Do's and Don'ts' -which set out obligations and prohibitions relating to Platform Openness, Neutrality, Interoperability and On-platform Competition; Non-discrimination; Fair terms; Controllability of algorithmic decisions and Access to justice; and Access to information; Respect for privacy; Choice on the use of data, and Choice for customers; Simplicity, not Forcing. Effective enforcement of these rules relies on three key factors:1. Compliance with these rules should be automatic, as we are re-setting the framework for market competition 2. Monitoring market developments and ensuring that the rules are fit for purpose requires new institutional capabilities, and a new and strong interplay between these functions and the responsible officers (e. g. both within and between DG COMP and DG CNCT for example)