CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND COMPETITION LAW… ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND COMPETITION LAW – – IS THE NOTION OF AN UNDERTAKING BROAD ENOUGH? Michal Petr* Abstract : The addressees of EU competition law are traditionally defined as “undertakings”; this notion covers any economic unit pursuing an economic activity, typically a group of companies subjected to a common control. This presupposes that the strategic decisions concerning business activities of the undertakings concerned are ultimately adopted by humans. This is however going to change, particularly as far as setting prices is concerned: such decisions are more and more often adopted by autonomous algorithms without direct human oversight. This article explores whether the notion of an undertaking covers liability for decisions adopted by artificial intelligence, and more broadly, whether competition law as it stands today covers such practices. Resumé: Za adresáty soutěžního práva se tradičně považují soutěžitelé, tedy ekonomické jednotky vykonávající hospodářskou činnost; nejčastěji se jedná o skupinu osob podříze- ných společné kontrole. Předpokládá se, že strategická rozhodnutí týkající se obchodní čin- nosti soutěžitelů přijímají v důsledku lidské bytosti. To by se nicméně mohlo v budoucnu změnit, zejména, pokud jde o ceny: taková rozhodnutí jsou totiž čím dál častěji přijímána cenovými algoritmy bez přímé lidské kontroly. Tento článek se proto zabývá otázkou, zda koncept soutěžitele pokrývá i rozhodnutí přijatá umělou inteligencí, a poněkud obecněji, zda na ně vůbec dopadá dnešní soutěžní právo. Key words : artificial intelligence, competition law, cartels, liability, personalised pricing, pricing algorithms, tacit collusion About the Author: Doc. JUDr. Michal Petr, PhD. , is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law of the Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. He specializes in economic aspects of EU integration, in particular competition law, sectoral regulation, and public procurement. Before his academic career, he worked at the Czech Competition Authority as its Vice Chairman. I. Introduction The purpose of competition law is to protect the markets from distortion caused by undertakings wielding significant market power, whether in coordination with other undertakings active in the market (anticompetitive agreements) or individually (abuse of dominance). Ultimately, such conduct that harms consumers, and consumer welfare is therefore generally believed to be the main goal of competition law; 1 at the same time, competition law is not a consumer protection law, it is primarily concerned with markets, not individuals. In order to assess whether a certain practice is anticompetitive, it is therefore necessary to analyse its precise effects on the market. To that end, competition law has developed numerous specific instruments, enabling its effective application. Crucial among them is the * This article was drafted with the support of the grant project of the Czech Science Foundation „Koncept soutěžitele v českém a unijním právu“ [Concept of Undertakings in Czech and EU Law], grant no. GA18-21829S.” 1 See e.g. the report of GA Wahl in case C-194/14 P AC-Treuhand , par. 1.

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