EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

Prague, Czechia

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

mentions obligations and prohibitions are likely to have a significant impact on any advertising services provided by Google.

5. Conclusion As is quite clear, the Commission’s investigation on Google’s (in some cases still) alleged anticompetitive behaviour on the digital market is far from being simple. The dynamic and self-evolving nature of competition law is almost uncontainable, the digital market is not particularly suitable for the scrutiny that always follows an alleged breach of anticompetitive rules (Sylwan, 2021, p. 52). In the Google Shopping case, the final decision (or is it) was delivered more than a decade (sic!) after the initiation of the investigation. Even though the competition regulation cannot be per se considered completely ineffective, it is obvious that another mechanism is necessary in order to prevent harmful behaviour of ad tech giants, or from another point of view it is necessary to define borderlines in which the big tech undertakings can implement their innovative products without breaching the rules regulating the digital market. As is analysed above, the DMA contains ex ante regulation that impacts on the behaviour of Google that was already investigated and declared to be anticompetitive or is currently under scrutiny by Commission. Under the DMA, Google and other gatekeepers will have basic guidelines in order to modify their mechanisms and business practices. Therefore, the DMA might have potential to both ease the rigid anticompetitive scrutiny by being the type regulation that evolves alongside the digital market (Andreson; Mariniello [online], 2021) and to also be the preventive ( ex ante ) regulation that is shall be considered as framework for the provision of services by big tech undertakings. Acknowledgments This text has been elaborated within the project of the student scientific research “ Development of financial and criminal law regulation under the influence of the European Union legislation ” which is realized in the years 2020–2022 at the Faculty of Law of the Charles University, SVV 260 493/2020.

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