EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

Prague, Czechia

of such conditions and dispute resolution. These duties should ensure higher transparency of the operation of the online intermediation services to the business users (explanation of the main parameters of the ranking, differentiated treatment with products or services of the provider or business user controlled by it) and also provide certain guarantees and protections to the business users (reasoned suspension or termination of online intermediation services to the business user, clear visibility of the business user’s identity, introducing of internal complaint handling system on the provider’s platform, a lawsuit brought by an organization representing business users etc.). In order to increase compliance with the duties, the P2B Regulation also imposed the obligation to ensure adequate and effective enforcement of the Regulation on the Member States without setting specific form of such enforcement. Thus, the conference paper compares the enforcement mechanisms adopted by the selected Member States. The P2B Regulation is in practice the very first regulation considering the specifics of platforms, albeit rather lenient. As a result, solutions and adequate regulation for all problems of the P2B relationships are not included. Thus, the paper is focusing on the shortcomings of the P2B Regulation, shows the reality of protests of the business users of the platforms and its limits in competition law. 2. Problem Formulation and Methodology The study is structured into three parts. Firstly, it examines the way of enforcement of the P2B Regulation in selected Member States. Secondly, the study is focused on the shortcomings of P2B Regulation. Lastly, the study discusses the civic activities, namely the transition to alternative providers, practice, and legal limits of the collective actions of business users in order to acquire better conditions towards the providers of online intermediation services. The paper is based on a descriptive, analytical, and comparative method. 3. The Enforcement of the P2B Regulation in selected Member States The P2B Regulation has been effective from 12 June 2020; thus, it was partly overshadowed by the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. It has not been much discussed in professional circles and, in addition, some of the Member States did not implement additional rules to ensure the enforcement of the P2B Regulation. However, the P2B Regulation explicitly imposed the obligation to ensure adequate and effective enforcement of the Regulation on Member States. The measures must be effective, proportionate, and dissuasive (Art. 15 of the Regulation).

110