Workshop: Competition and Big Tech
Workshop
Competition and Big Tech
March 21, 2023
Agenda
New Delhi, New Delhi University and via Zoom
14.00 – 19.00
14.00-14.15
Welcome and introduction to the workshop
• Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General of Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS)
• Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre
• Representative of the CCI
• Representative of the New Delhi University
14.15-15.45
Session Regulators at Crossroads: Ex Ante Rules and Competition Law for the Digital Economy
Description: Faced with the challenges of the digital economy, regulators around the world are
struggling to choose the right mode of action. While equipping existing competition law with new
tools calibrated for digital markets may be one option, an increasing number of jurisdictions prefer
to draft rules that target certain digital platforms and a specific list of harmful practices. For
competition authorities, this may mean that competition law is losing its regulatory relevance in
the new economy. This session will discuss whether competition law indeed is lagging behind in
harnessing Big Tech and what are the ways to reinvigorate its power including by combining
conventional competition law enforcement with the preventive nature of ex ante rules.
Chair: CCI representative
Speakers:
• Ioannis Lianos, President, Hellenic Competition Commission, Professor, Chair of Global
Competition Law and Public Policy at the Faculty of Laws, University College London
• Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV Direito Rio
• Arul George Scaria, Associate Professor of Law, National Law School of India University
• Vikas Kathuria, Associate Professor, BML Munjal Law School
• Ettore Maria Lombardi, Professor, School of Law, University of Florence
• Daria Kotova, Research fellow, BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre
15.45-16.00 Break
16.00 – 17.00
Session Ecological Approach to Competition Law in the New Economy
Description: This session will focus on the innovative approach to the ecosystem economy that
views digital ecosystems as similar in many ways to their natural counterparts. An ecological
approach to regulation of digital ecosystems and platforms – ecoantitrust – presumes that ecosystem businesses are organized as complex systems and thus their features and behavior
can be compared to some pivotal examples of complex systems – natural ecosystems. This
approach uses analogies and methods from ecology and biology to formulate a new toolbox for
regulators tasked with controlling the growing power of digital ecosystem businesses. This
session will include a presentation of the Ecoantitrust project followed by a discussion.
Chair: Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head, Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Russia
Speakers:
• Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre
• Elena Rovenskaya, Program Director, IIASA
• Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV Direito Rio
• Ujjwal Kumar, Associate Director, CUTS International and Deputy Head, CUTS-CCIER
• Jia Kai, Associate Professor, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
(UESTC)
17.00-17.30 Break
17.30-19.00
Session Towards a Sustainable Regulation of the Digital Market: Indian Perspective
Description: This session will cover the strategic change in the Indian approach to the digital
economy. The session speakers are invited to share their views on the future of the Indian digital
market and the recent regulatory initiatives such as the Competition (Amendment) Bill and
proposals to establish an ex ante regime for digital platforms, as well as the proposed institutional
changes to the CCI. The goal of the session is to envision India’s place among the pioneering
jurisdictions that strive to develop a sustainable digital economy.
• Chair: Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General of Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS)
Speakers:
• Representative of the CCI
• Representative of the New Delhi University
• Ujjwal Kumar, Associate Director, CUTS International and Deputy Head, CUTS-CCIER
