Publications Archives - The Competition Law Hub

Steering and User Choice in the DMA

ComplawAdmin — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 07:49:18 +0000

Vicky Robertson and David Führer just published a working paper version of their analysis of Articles 5(4) and 5(5) Digital Markets Act (DMA) on SSRN. These two provisions enshrine business users’ right to steer their customers away from gatekeepers’ app stores, as well as users’ right to access content they acquired off a core platform service. Articles 5(4) and 5(5) DMA need to be seen against the background of the anti-steering provisions typically included in various application stores. These have already been subject to antitrust enforcement and have now also come under DMA scrutiny in the Apple App Store (non-compliance) decision of 2025.

The contribution is forthcoming in a comprehensive commentary on the Digital Markets Act, edited by Ioannis Kokkoris.

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Special Issue on the EU Market Definition Notice

ComplawAdmin — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 08:56:59 +0000

The European Commission’s revised Market Definition Notice, published in 2024, brought many changes and updates to this central analytical step in EU competition law. A Special Issue in the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, published in March 2026, puts a spotlight on the Notice’s novelties, its intricacies and the questions it raises. Covering issues as diverse as labour market definition, systemic market power, ecosystems, intellectual property rights, homogeneous conditions of competition and multi-sided markets, the Special Issue contains contributions by Terézia Ovečka, Joanna Mazur and Antoni Napieralski, Emanuela Lecchi, Annika Stöhr and Oliver Budzinski, Anouk van der Veer, Hedvig Schmidt, Lirio Barros, Timo Klein, Sophie Kümmel, and Ilaria Noviello, Jan Broulík, as well as Helen Ralston-Smith and Gunnar Niels. The Special Issue was brought together by guest editors Magali Eben (CREATe, University of Glasgow) and The Hub’s Vicky Robertson (WU Vienna). Their editorial can be read in open access here.

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E-Charging Infrastructure: Competition Law Perspectives

ComplawAdmin — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 06:39:54 +0000

In view of the EU’s climate neutrality goals, e-mobility and the development of e-charging infrastructure have become central policy priorities, increasingly attracting the attention of competition authorities. In her article published in the Austrian Journal of Competition Law (ÖZK), Teresa Greinecker explores how competition law shapes this emerging market. She examines whether oligopolies and collusion could impede the rollout of e-charging networks, whether competition law acts as a barrier or a catalyst for e-mobility, and how pricing and transparency affect market dynamics. Drawing on German and UK market studies, the article analyzes the Austrian e-charging market and highlights key differences from the fuel retail sector. It shows that ad-hoc charging promotes competition, while bundling may reduce price transparency. Although oligopoly formation and potential collusion have thus far been primarily observed in the fuel retail market, the findings indicate that such dynamics may also emerge in the e-charging infrastructure market. The article, which is based on Teresa’s bachelor thesis at The Competition Law Hub, is available here.

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Detecting RPM with Unsupervised Machine Learning

ComplawAdmin — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 06:51:17 +0000

Computational antitrust has found more and more applications in recent years, including through the use of machine learning. However, the availability of labelled data to train algorithms proves to be an obstacle. In this paper, Valentin Forster, Jürgen Fleiß, Dominik Kowald and Vicky Robertson explore the use of unsupervised machine learning to detect resale price maintenance (RPM) in price data. They develop assumptions that RPM prices exhibit increased similarity, a right-skewed distribution including a cut-off point, and fewer price changes over time compared with non-RPM prices. Based on these assumptions, they extract features based on simple statistical coefficients and perform clustering to detect products with price characteristics consistent with RPM. Subsequently, this can serve as a sufficient basis to conduct more in-depth antitrust investigations. They test our approach on five real-world product datasets scraped from an Austrian price comparison website. They show that their screen successfully clusters products with price patterns indicative of RPM. Their contribution, published in the Journal of Competition Law & Economics, is available in open access here.

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Data-driven market definition for AI and video games

ComplawAdmin — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 06:42:12 +0000

In digital markets, the failure to adapt market definition tools risks undermining effective competition enforcement. In this open access contribution to the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, Fabian Ziermann argues that defining markets in AI and video gaming must center on dataset substitutability. Using analogies from medicine, where cancer models cannot be trained on diabetes data, and gaming, where AI trained on one game mode fails in another, he illustrates why data markets should be delineated by dataset, not product.

Through case examples from Amazon, OpenAI, and Fortnite, he shows how this approach can address entrenched power in data-driven sectors. He further highlights that video games have long embodied AI-like structures, predating Big Tech’s dominance, and that competition authorities should treat AI and gaming as joint enforcement priorities. The article offers a concrete path forward for regulators seeking precision in defining digital markets shaped by algorithmic logic and data dependency, based on Amazon Marketplace. His contribution can be accessed here.

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Strategic Foresight & Competition Law

ComplawAdmin — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 06:39:02 +0000

Klaudia Majcher and Vicky Robertson’s paper on ‘Strategic Foresight and EU Competition Law’ was just published in World Competition. They discuss how tools from strategic foresight could contribute to making EU competition law more futureproof, while also highlighting the challenges that must be overcome to employ these tools. The article is available here.

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European Energy Policy

ComplawAdmin — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 08:55:36 +0000

In a new book, Petar Petrov sheds light on the roots of Europe’s energy dependence on Russia and the challenges it poses. He does so through a historical, geopolitical and competition law lens. He examines market dynamics, market structure, Gazprom’s strategic role, and the growing tensions between energy security and European integration. This book also examines various challenges faced by the European Commission regarding efficient public enforcement in gas markets, with a particular focus on the Commission’s Gazprom decision, and points to the role of competition law in ensuring the functioning of the single gas market.

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eSports and Antitrust Law

ComplawAdmin — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 06:29:03 +0000

In a contribution to the edited volume Esports Law and Practice (Edward Elgar 2025), Soojin Nam, Vicky Robertson and Fabian Ziermann assess the state of play of antitrust in the eSports sector from the perspective of South Korean and EU competition law. The contribution can be accessed here.

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Conceptualising Virtual Worlds

ComplawAdmin — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 07:47:37 +0000

In a recent working paper, Ayse Gizem Yasar (LSE) and Fabian Ziermann explore the concept of virtual worlds. They argue that virtual worlds emerge from existing ecosystems, such as app stores, video games, and hardware platforms, and are shaped by competing narratives. Ultimately, virtual worlds’ structure will reflect the narratives advanced by the most influential stakeholders. To prevent a winner-takes-all outcome, as witnessed in other digital markets, they call for early regulatory involvement to help shape these evolving architectures. The paper can be accessed here.

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Competition Law in Austria 2025

ComplawAdmin — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 08:13:02 +0000

Vicky Robertson just published the second edition of her monograph Competition Law in Austria. Forming part of Kluwer’s International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this volume provides an in-depth account of Austrian competition law, including its legal provisions and recent case law. The volume is up-to-date as of February 2025. It can be accessed here (as part of the IEL) and individually here.

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