Latest blog articles

Data is intangible, non-rivalrous, and produced in vast quantities with little to no incentive. How then can it be a source of competition issues in digital markets? This blog seeks to explain.

Data spaces are an important initiative to promote data sharing within the EU and across sectors and to make more data available for the benefit of society at large. At the same time, however, data spaces could be challenging under competition law.

In the digital economy, algorithms are the new air- they are everywhere, essential for survival online. Algorithms manage every keystroke, every search, every step on the web. Algorithms are a sequence of instructions to solve a problem and take decisions. Online platforms use algorithms in every...

As we all can experience in our daily basis, we are living through the age of digitalization. Goods that were formerly tangible (as paperback books) or that at least had a tangible medium (as cartridge-based videogames), are now available in full-digital versions. Moreover, many physical goods are...

Some conducts encountered in digital markets, e.g. killer acquisitions, self-promotion and marketing strategies, non-transparent and discriminatory interfaces, signify a need for ex ante regulation, as widely acknowledged. The European Commission, UK Government and US Senators proposed legislative...

Representing the prototype of multi-sided platforms, app stores are at the forefront of the debate on digital markets. Several regulatory proposals place on app stores neutrality obligations vis-à-vis third parties.  Are EU and US competition laws utterly unfit to tackle platform-related behaviours...

As Big Tech Platforms increasingly become unavoidable actors in digital markets, there seems to be a consensus in the EU, UK and USA that legislative action must be taken to tame their power. However, there are several notable differences in the way in which they suggest to design this regulatory...

Recently I was interviewed by Dutch news radio station BNR on the question whether there are legal or economic arguments to split up Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. Because the interview was short, I could not give a truly balanced answer. Rather, from my Law &...

Not out of possibility, but out of necessity

The last couple of weeks of 2021 were dominated by the cross-border nature of the COVID-19 crisis, and the fight against it. While the Netherlands went into the holiday season under a lockdown, complete closures were largely absent in Germany and...

Can consumers with suspicion of unfair commercial practices linked to the voluntary compensation scheme make the aviation sector more sustainable? Does the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices play a role in this?