Independent report

2023 Compendium of approaches to improving competition in digital markets

An updated version of the 2022 compendium, prepared by the Japan Fair Trade Commission as part of Japan’s G7 presidency in 2023.

Documents

2023 Updated compendium of approaches to improving competition in digital markets

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Details

This compendium follows the 2021 compendium, which was prepared by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, and the 2022 compendium which was prepared by Germany’s Bundeskartellamt.

Developed and updated 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

  • working to identify and understand emerging technologies and consider issues that may raise competition concerns in the future

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 8 November 2023 at the G7 Joint Competition Enforcers and Policymakers Summit jointly hosted the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Headquarters for Digital Market Competition of the Cabinet Secretariat (HDMC). The CMA, DSIT and DBT attended the Summit, where discussions focused issues including enforcers’ priorities, challenges and approaches in digital markets and recent updates on policy initiatives and frameworks for digital competition.

The Group of 7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union. The UK invited Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea as guests in 2021. They have continued to contribute updates to the compendium.

Published 8 November 2023