Public and Private Enforcement of EU Competition Law in the Age of Big Data

This book constitutes the final output of the COMP.EU.TER Project (Public and Private Enforcement of EU Competition Law in the Age of Big Data), cofunded by the Training of National Judges Programme of the European Union (GA HT.6149 SI2.858159). Over two years, the COMP.EU.TER Project provided training to national judges and apprentice judges on the enforcement of EU competition law in the digital era. Training activities were organized by the Universities of Turin, Milan and Genoa in the form of seminars, lectures and online materials made available on the project’s e-learning platform (www.compeuter.unito.it). In addition, the project benefitted from a wider network of associated partners (the Universities of Antwerp, Ferrara, Aberdeen, Rotterdam, Warsaw and Zaragoza) which contributed by providing materials for the COMP.EU.TER e-learning platform and promoting the training activities among the respective national judiciaries. On 30th November and 1st December 2023, the Final Conference of the COMP.EU.TER Project was held at the Palazzo di Giustizia in Milan, which houses both the Court of Milan and the Court of Appeal of Milan. Over two days, the speakers addressed a selected audience of national judges from over ten Member States, tackling the most relevant developments in the public and private enforcement of EU competition law in the context of digital markets. The aim of the COMP.EU.TER Project has been, primarily, to raise the awareness of national judges about the challenges posed by the application to the digital world of traditional competition law concepts developed in the “analogic” world. Not only do the big data revolution and the up-surging diffusion of data analytics facilitate the commission of existing antitrust violations, but they also originate new types of anti-competitive behaviours that could not be committed in the analogic world (e.g. algorithmic collusion, behavioural discrimination). In addi-tion, the structure and the dynamics of digital markets put traditional tools of competition law enforcement under strain, increasing the bur-den of both administrative authorities and courts. Against this backdrop, the COMP.EU.TER Project has sought to bet-ter prepare national judges for the task of enforcing EU competition law in digital markets, by helping them familiarise with the most recent legis-lation, case law and practice. The book shares this goal, and its primary targets are national judges dealing with competition law in the courts of the Member States. We hope that the book may guide them in this diffi-cult task, in a context where profound transformations in technology, market structure and regulatory landscape present the enforcers with unprecedented challenges. For similar reasons, we expect it to provide useful insights to legal practitioners and academics interested in understanding the way EU competition law is and will be applied to digital markets.