Meeting of the Working Group on Competition Law on the topic of internet platforms

On 1 October 2015 the Working Group on Competition Law met at the invitation of the Bundeskartellamt. At the meeting over 100 competition law experts discussed and exchanged views on the theme "Internet platforms in the digital economy: competition law, privacy and consumer protection."

The Working Group on Competition Law is made up of a large number of university professors from law and economics faculties, high-ranking representatives of national and European competition authorities and ministries, as well as judges from the cartel divisions of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court and the Federal Court of Justice. For more than 40 years the group has met annually to discuss fundamental issues of competition policy.

Konrad Ost, Vice President of the Bundeskartellamt stated: "The historical origin of antitrust legislation lies in the concern about the excessive economic and political power of large industrial companies and cartels. In digital platforms like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, etc. we are seeing new concentrations of economic power which are of overall social significance. Here we are faced with a conflict of interests between huge advances in innovation and the fast dynamics of digital markets on the one hand and the great tendency towards concentration due to network effects, large databases and substantial financial strength on the other. This raises many issues. Apart from legislation on data protection, copyrights, taxes and consumer protection, competition law is an essential element for dealing with these issues."

Chaired by Prof. Dr. Ost, the meeting featured introductory statements by and a panel discussion with Julia Topel, Chair of the 6th Decision Division of the Bundeskartellamt, who presented the authority's "Internet Platforms Think Tank", Prof. Dr. Torsten Körber, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Thomas Kramler, Head of the Digital Single Market Task Force of the Directorate-General for Competition at the European Commission, Prof. Dr. Boris Paal, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, und Prof. Dr. Markus Reisinger, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

The working group was of the general opinion that competition law and its enforcement were sufficiently flexible to tackle the challenges of the digital economy. A controversial discussion took place on the need for legislative measures. Some participants proposed modifications to the existing competition law system. It became clear from the dicussion that in many important respects internet platforms do not fit into the categories established under the legal system and thwarts the logic of existing regulation. At the same time in many areas of the services offered by internet-based platforms market structures have developed which are characterized by leading or even dominant provider. The question of whether the competition authorities should intervene earlier and more often in these dynamic markets was also controversially discussed. The conference participants agreed that this depended decisively on how contestable markets are and whether entries to the market seem possible.

In the light of the practical cases dealt with by the European Commission and the Bundeskartellamt, e.g. Facebook's takeover of WhatsApp, the current merger plans of real estate portals and online dating platforms in Germany, Amazon Marketplace's price parity clauses and the Commission's Google proceedings, the conference participants discussed in great detail possible competition restraints and theories of harm as well as the appropriate conceptual definition of internet platforms.

The Working Paper of the meeting and the individual statements of the conference participants are available (in German) on the Bundeskartellamt's website.