ANATOLY GOLOMOLZIN: NON-DISCRIMINATORY ACCESS TO THE ECONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE MUST BE GUARANTEED IN THE DIGITALIZATION CONDITIONS
On 27 September 2018, 11th session of the International Working Group for developing competition in the information-and-communications technologies (ICT) took place
Representatives of 15 countries from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa took part in the session. The agenda and the key reports were prepared by IWG co-chairs – competition authorities of Russia and Turkey. Presentations were given by both competition authorities and academic circles of the international community.
In the introductory part, Head of FAS Department for Regulating Communications and Information Technologies, Elena Zaeva, presented an abridged version of a report drafted by the Headquarters for Joint Investigations in the CIS: “Building up competition policy under developing of digital economy”.
The speaker outlined recommendations to the CIS member-states for planning and organizing measures towards developing digital economy, including the principles of technological and network neutrality in regulation and countering market monopolization, particularly, by determining sole suppliers. She said that in the near future the CIS member-states would have to undertake measures to improve the antimonopoly law.
Next, IWG discussed the balance on antimonopoly law and intellectual property law. The conclusions reached by CIS antimonopoly officers on the need to apply competition law standards in relations to IP rights were corroborated by conclusions in the reports by Ebru Inche, an expert of Turkish Competition Authority; Alexei Ivanov, Director, Institute for Law and Development, HSE – Skolkovo; Prof. Bjorn Lundqvist, Stockholm University, as were supported by the WG participants in the course of the follow-up discussion.
The final item on the agenda of Working Group was “Information intermediaries (aggregators) on the market of transport service, hotel booking, in e-commerce and news aggregators”. The key speaker also was Head of FAS Department for Regulating Communications and Information Technologies, Elena Zaeva.
She pointed out: “It is difficult to define the aggregator place of in the traditional model for market studies, when an aggregator comes to an established market and radically changes its performance. Especially if it shapes different added values for the same goods. Questions that emerge here are gaining competitive advantages on adjacent markets, reinforcing dominance by creating and managing digital platforms, determining the access to various markets. It is difficult to not only expose and prove digital – “software” – violations, but also determine who should be issued an order and how it should be enforced”.
Other speakers were: Ebru Inche, an expert of Turkish Competition Authority; Akari Yamamoto, a senior investigator, the leniency programme, Japan Fair Trade Commission; Alexandre Cordeiro, Superintendent, Brazil Administrative Council for Economic Defence; Vadiyya Khalil, the Chair of Pakistan Competition Commission; Dinni Melani and Afif Hasbulla, representatives of Indonesian Competition Commission; Prof. Cairo Mario, FGV-EAESP School of Business, Brazil.
Co-chair of the International Working Group, Deputy Head of FAS Anatoly Golomolzin stated: “Digital platforms have resulted in changes on most markets. Changes concerns not only expanding the line of products (goods, services), increasing their quality and price reduction but also new forms of violating the antimonopoly law. Market power in the modern world emerges and reinforces due to big data, algorithm economy, IP right pools. Difficulties in digital market analysis are increasing because of their multi-elements and different ways of income monetization”.
In this context Deputy Head of FAS emphasized the importance of “drafting amendments to the antimonopoly law, particularly, related to refining the conceptual framework, using the antimonopoly law in the field of IP rights, accounting for the specifics of M&A control”.
Wrapping up the session, Anatoly Golomolzin underlined: “In many countries in the world digital economy programmes are drafted or are being drafted as the key direction for developing the economy of the future. They generate the biggest effect is the measures for fulfilling them are pro-competitive, build up on the principles of technological neutrality and network neutrality, prevent monopolization of newly formed structures, are oriented towards competition in digital ecosystems and under the frame of common trust space. The overall conclusion is that in the conditions of digitalization non-discriminatory access to the economy of knowledge must be guaranteed”.
Following the session, a consolidated analytical note will be written based on the given reports and the discussion. In the next month, co-chairs of the Working Group, with engagement of stakeholders, will prepare proposals on the agenda and time of the next session.