2022 Compendium of approaches to improving competition in digital markets
An updated version of the 2021 compendium, prepared by the Bundeskartellamt as part of Germany’s G7 presidency in 2022.
Documents
Details
This compendium follows the 2021 compendium, which was prepared by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Developed by G7 and guest competition authorities, the compendium provides an overview of how different authorities are working to promote competition in digital markets. The compendium highlights that there is a high level of commonality in the approaches that authorities are taking to address competition concerns. These include:
-
opening investigations, conducting studies, or bringing enforcement actions to address concerns about the exercise of market power of platforms
-
strengthening institutional capabilities by developing specialist teams staffed with technical experts or upskilling existing staff
-
considering or introducing legislative reforms to either bolster enforcement tools or introduce an ex-ante regulatory regime or both
-
ensuring regulatory cooperation both among domestic regulators working across disciplines as well as with foreign counterparts to promote interoperable systems
The intention is for the compendium to be an informative and useful tool for national governments, policy makers, and industry participants, as well as counterpart competition authorities and regulators grappling with similar issues.
The updated compendium was published on 12 October 2022 at the G7 Digital Competition Enforcers and Policy Makers Summit jointly hosted by the Bundeskartellamt and the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The CMA, BEIS and DCMS attended the Summit, where discussions focused on the state of legal reforms around the globe, digital enforcement and the intersection of competition law and other fields of policy and law.
This work comes at a seminal point, with the need to address the challenges of digital markets and big tech one of the most important issues facing governments and competition authorities around the world.
The competition authorities of Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, contributed to the Compendium.