Effective DMA Enforcement: Call for Papers and Brussels Symposium
The Symposium
European Commission officials and national competition authorities across the EU are preparing to enforce the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This will be a challenging exercise, and enforcers will face many questions brought in by this new regulatory framework.
While built on a number of rules that recall similar conducts – which have been sanctioned in the past as abuses of dominant position – the DMA is an entirely new legal instrument. It is to be expected that enforcers will look at the competition case law and literature as a reference point, but the DMA’s objectives are different, and complementary, to those of EU competition law. For this reason, enforcers should be cautious not to heavily borrow competition case law and concepts in the implementation of the DMA. Rather, they should work to interpret and apply the DMA rules in a way that guarantees their full potential in order to achieve the Regulation’s ambitious objectives of contestability and fairness in digital markets.
In this scenario, scholars have a key role to play. They can help assess the deeper layers and enforcement framework of the new rules, interpret their content, and assess the rules’ potential in their own right and in relation to other fields of EU law to support the enforcers in making informed decisions.
The Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, the Hertie School Centre for Digital Governance, and the University of Trento, with the support of the free speech organization ARTICLE 19, are keen to facilitate deep collaboration between academia and regulators, and are excited to announce a two-day symposium on 22 and 23 November where invited scholars can present and discuss their research. Scholars were selected through a blinded peer review process following a call for abstracts in June 2023.
We are pleased to announce that among the discussants there will be high level members of DG COMP, DG CNECT, EDPS, and national competition authorities dealing with the enforcement of the DMA. We believe that facilitating a direct dialogue between scholars and regulators is a win-win situation and we’re honoured to be able to offer this opportunity. The agenda for the event will be circulated among participants by the beginning of November.
Call for Abstracts
This call for papers aims to gather original work by scholars addressing so far overlooked themes and issues and to stimulate research and debate on the implementation and enforcement of DMA rules. We particularly welcome scholarly contributions that address one of the following themes, but other proposals fitting the general objectives of this call are welcome as well:
- The goals of the DMA between contestability, fairness, and choice
- Interpretative issues and how to ensure coordination among the enforcement of the individual rules
- The relationship between the DMA and Articles 101 and 102 TFEU
- The relationship with GDPR and other fundamental rights frameworks
- Self-preferencing between guiding principles and concrete measures
- Technical aspects of interoperability
- App stores between fairness and contestability
- Unintended consequences of the DMA: innovation, IP rights, and technological adoption/diffusion
- Regulatory dialogue and stakeholders’ participation
- The role and functioning of the High-Level Expert Group
- Enforcement and cooperation issues between the Commission, the NCAs, and other relevant bodies
- Compliance monitoring: who, what, and how (and necessary safeguards)
- What effective compliance with the DMA means and how success can be assessed
Submission of abstract
Scholars are invited to submit an extended abstract 600-800 words long (excluding bibliography), which must describe:
Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches are warmly encouraged. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to discuss their elaborated draft during a symposium in Brussels in November 2023. The symposium will count on the presence of members of this call’s Scientific Committee, as well as keynote speakers, including high level members of the European Commission.
There will be the possibility for a focused subset of accepted papers to be fast-tracked for publication in a relevant journal [details to be communicated soon].
The extended abstract must be uploaded to the submission platform by 4 September 2023, 23.59h (in the submitter’s timezone). When submitting their abstract, scholars are required to disclose any funding or support they receive for their work. Details on the submission platform will be communicated soon.
Individual abstracts will be reviewed in a double blind peer-review. Please do not include names or any other identifiable information on the uploaded file or in the text of the abstract you submit to the platform. The platform records the author name(s) and contact information: the programme committee chair will be able to see that information. Full papers should only be submitted upon invitation, following the selection of abstracts. For further information on the submission process please contact [email protected].
Important dates:
- Submission portal opens: 3 July
- Deadline for abstracts submission: 11 September [EXTENDED]
- Notification to authors of acceptances/rejections: 6 October
- Accepted authors confirm attendance: 11 October
- Draft papers due: 13 November
- Symposium: 22-23 November
- Full papers due: 20 December
Scientific Committee:
Anna Rita Bennato, Lecturer in Economics, Loughborough Business School, United Kingdom
Ian Brown, Visiting Professor, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil
Joanna Bryson, Professor of Ethics and Technology, Hertie School, Berlin, Germany
Chiara Caccinelli, Deputy Head of the Economic Analysis and Digital Affairs Unit, ARCEP, France
Kati Cseres, Associate professor, Amsterdam Center for European Law & Governance, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Agustina del Campo, Director of CELE, University of Palermo, Argentina
Tomaso Duso, Professor, TU Berlin, Germany
Lapo Filistrucchi, Professor, University of Florence and European University Institute
Stavros Makris, Lecturer in Competition law, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Helena Malikova, Fellow, Hertie School Center for Digital Governance, Berlin, Germany
Maria Luisa Stasi, Head of Law and Policy, ARTICLE 19 and Researcher, Tilburg Law School, The Netherlands
Simonetta Vezzoso, Researcher and Professor on competition policy, University of Trento, Italy
For any queries about this call, please write to [email protected].