Session on the Development of Approaches for the Protection of Competition in the Digital Space: The Case of Google

The HSE Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development in the framework of the 17th International Academic Conference of April, on the issues of economic and social development, on April 22, held a section devoted to the analysis and assessment of the impact of the development of competition in relation to the BRICS countries' Antitrust authorities versus Google.

The theoretical basis of the session was an article by Director of the Institute of Alexey Ivanov, co-authored with Deputy Head of the FAS Alexei Dotsenko - "Antitrust regulation, the digital platform and innovation: the case of Google and the development of approaches in the digital environment". Based on the analysis of the most resonant cases of the last years, the authors showed what are the challenges for antitrust regulation carried into the innovative digital environment in the context of the actions of the major players in the market for digital platforms. An evidence-based approach was was conducted via Antitrust materials against Google and Microsoft. Among other things, there was analysis of unique material presented from the FAS, not previously covered in the scientific literature on the experience of countering a dominant position in these markets.

 

Director of the Institute Alexey Ivanov opened the session and spoke about the difficulties faced by the Russian regulator in the antitrust investigation against Google. Enforcement authorities for antitrust in the BRICS countries aimed at creating a competitive environment on market platforms and related services, are, according to Ivanov, capable of changing global trends. Competition authorities in developed countries are beginning to reconsider their positions.

 

Karan Chandhiok, partner at Chandhiok & Associates, told of four antitrust cases taken against Google in India. The antitrust investigation conducted an analysis of the impact of innovation and foreign direct investment in the IT sector of India. Kwang Yu, an expert on Chinese law, and researcher at the Institute, analyzed the case of the merger of Google and Motorola, and noted that because of the nature of the market structure of the Chinese antitrust authorities, the focus went on the analysis of supply chains.

 

Pierre Regibeau, Vice President at Charles River Associates, and researcher at the Centre for Intellectual Property, Imperial College London, presented the approaches of the European antitrust authorities toward Google. Nicholas Economides, Professor at the Leonard Stern Business School of new York, gave an economic analysis of the American approach to Google.

To complete the section, Ioannis Lianos, leading researcher of the Institute, spoke. He said that in a constantly changing world with such rapid development of technology, an evidence-based approach has been adopted, and modern competition law is based on the model of case analyses.