1. Fake News. We all know how much Donald Trump likes to use the term “fake news” in his communications, yet the term has independently become a general buzz word of our times. It refers to misinformation, often distributed via online platforms, to intentionally mislead and damage the reputation of a person, company or institution. “Fake news” has already been described as a significant threat to our democracy. Beyond its social and political impact, fake news can also cause harm to markets. It has an impact on public policies and sectors, including finance, health, and the environment.
The European Commission has recently initiated a public consultation across the EU to collect opinions from all parties being affected by fake news in order to understand the scope of the issue and the effectiveness of measures already put in place by industries to prevent the online distribution of disinformation. The consultation ends on February 23, 2018. It presents a good chance to shape the directions for future action in the European Union and to design new measures to improve quality and accuracy of information.
Member States are taking several initiatives to stop the distribution of fake news. Measures also include penalties for social media companies that fail to remove illegal content. No doubt that accuracy, quality and content are all significant competition parameters in the online platform market – thus, European competition authorities follow this topic very closely.
2. Digitalization. Competition enforcement will continuously focus on the digitalization of modern economy to ensure that consumers in Europe can take full advantage of innovation and latest technological developments. The European Commission currently collects data to assess the market power of multinational technology companies, with clear emphasis on concentration trends, firm entry and exit, and margins. The findings will validly contribute to the current debate on whether there should be a more interventionist competition law approach for online markets.
Focus areas will be:
a) Decision-making software, i.e., algorithms – a key factor that drives the functionalities of many digital products. This can raise competition law concerns, e.g., if such decision-making software or algorithms can be used for monitoring the prices of competitors for their services and/or goods and to adapt the prices for a company’s own products/services;
b) big data (analytics), how it can have an impact on market power and how it must be taken into consideration with respect to merger control activities; and
c) the e-commerce sector enquiry consequences and the ongoing enforcement against geo-blocking and pricing restrictions in online distribution channels.
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Alesch Staehelin is IBM’s Lead Counsel Research Europe, focusing on the legal aspects of cognitive computing (digitalization, virtualization and automation): Internet of Things, blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, etc. He is a member of IBM’s global IP and competition law core teams.
Before assuming his current role, Alesch Staehelin was for several years the Lead Counsel Europe for IBM’s maintenance services and IBM’s Lead Counsel DACH for outsourcing services, etc. Prior to joining IBM, he worked eight years as a TMT attorney for major law firms in Zurich, Switzerland.
As Digital Lawyer & Counsel (DLC)®, Alesch Staehelin frequently speaks and writes on Technology & IP related legal issues. He studied at the UCLA School of Law (LL.M.), the City University of New York and the University of Zurich School of Law (Dr. iur.).