Speech by EVP Vestager at the Renew Europe event at the European Parliament,
Brussels, 19 February 2024.
[...] " A second lesson we've learned is that digital markets are wide-reaching, sometimes affecting the economy in ways you might not have expected. So we have to look carefully at vertical integration and at ecosystems. We have to take account of the impact of AI in how we assess mergers. We even have to think about how AI might lead to new kinds of algorithmic collusion. [...]"

The European Commission has today adopted a revised Market Definition Notice (“the Notice”). Market definition requires identifying the boundaries of competition between companies when assessing mergers and most antitrust cases. The revised Notice brings the Commission's guidance in line with new market realities, as well as with developments in the Commission's case practice and EU case law. It will enhance transparency and legal certainty for businesses, facilitate compliance and contribute to a more efficient competition enforcement.
See also Questions and answers on the revised Market Definition Notice; the COMP Flash by Inge Bernaerts, Director of Policy and Strategy at DG COMP, as well as the remarks by Executive Vice-President Vestager.

Officials and experts from the EU and India met online on 29 and 30 January 2024 to discuss and exchange good practices in competition policy and enforcement.
The annual EU-India Competition Week is part of the Competition Cooperation project, a 5-year EU-funded programme offering technical cooperation to competition authorities in Asia. It provides a platform for exchanges between the European Commission Directorate-General for Competition and the Competition Commission of India.

The European Commission has published a report providing an overview of the enforcement of EU antitrust and merger rules by the Commission and the national competition authorities (‘NCAs') in the pharmaceutical sector between 2018 and 2022. Today's report shows that active enforcement of antitrust and merger rules continues to play an important role in delivering European patients' access to a wider choice of affordable and innovative medicines. In particular, it helped to achieve this goal during the challenging period of the coronavirus pandemic.

New Legislation
'What's new?'

New Legislation

The European Commission has launched today two calls for contributions on competition in virtual worlds and generative artificial intelligence (‘AI') and sent requests for information to several large digital players.
Interested parties are invited to submit their responses to the calls for contributions by 11 March 2024. Interested parties may contribute to one of those two calls for contributions, or to both, as they wish.
See also the Commission's press release.

Here you have the highlights of all the episodes of the webcast series Let's Talk Competition of DG Competition that took place in 2023.
On each episode, well-known experts discuss key policy and enforcement developments in the field of competition policy. The debates are livestreamed from the Commission’s studios in Brussels and allow for interaction with the online audience.

What a year! Here at DG Competition we have had a very busy 2023. For ease of reference, we have put it all into one infographic.
Now, let's see what 2024 has in store for us!

The Markets for People debates series continues its effort to bring the competition policy debate around the EU Member States.
Next stop... Brno, Czechia. You will be able to participate in the event live in Brno and to debate with the speakers who will delve into the essential question of Why do we need Competition? The live stream will be available on the event-dedicated webpage.
Register now to attend the event in Brno by clicking on this link.

The Markets for People debates series continues in Brno, Czechia. You will be able to participate in the event live in Brno and to debate with the speakers who will delve into the essential question of Why do we need Competition? The speakers are Petr Mlsna, Chairman, Office for the Protection of Competition ÚOHS; Pavel Telička, former European Commissioner and MEP; Michala Hergetova, economic reporter and moderator of business events; and Martin Kvizda, Professor, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University.
Register now to attend the event in Brno by clicking on this link.

On December 7th, the fourth episode of the Markets for People series (titled “Why do we need competition?”) took place in Brno, Czechia.
In case you missed it, you can watch the recorded debate (original version in Czech also available!).
More episodes of the Markets for People series will come, so watch this space!

The fourth episode of the Markets for People series was titled “Why do we need competition?” and took place in Brno, Czechia.
With our thanks to all the participants and the speakers who contributed to the debate, you can now find all the material of the event, including the video highlights.
Stay tuned for new episodes, as our tour to carry the competition debate around the Union continues in 2024 ...

Speech by Commissioner Didier Reynders at Annual CRA Conference,
Brussels, 6 December 2023.
[...] " competition policy is in motion. It is moving because the markets that demand our attention are being shaped by the great trends of our time – digital transition, a new era for global markets, and historic geopolitical shifts. If we are to protect the contestability of markets at the centre of these changes, we are obliged to adapt. [...]"

The objective of this call for proposals is to co-finance projects aiming to train national judges in the context of enforcing European competition rules. This includes public and private enforcement of both the Antitrust rules and the State aid rules, thereby increasing the knowledge and know-how of national judges. The final aim is to ensure a coherent and consistent application of EU competition law by national courts.

Officials and experts from the EU and Korea are meeting online on 16 and 17 November 2023 in the annual EU-Korea Competition Week, part of the Competition Cooperation project, a 5-year EU-funded programme offering technical cooperation to competition authorities in Asia. The sessionswill focus on assessing tying arrangements in abuse of dominance cases and suitable remedies, as well as on best practices for antitrust proceedings and strengthening procedural fairness and transparency.

EU SEND is a web-based exchange platform that ensures secure transmission of documents between DG Competition and external stakeholders. As of November 11th, it replaces eTRustEx, the predecessor system. Users who had access to eTrustex do not need to register as their accounts/access rights have been automatically migrated to EU SEND.

Speech by Director-General Olivier Guersent at VI Lisbon Conference,
8 November 2023.
[...] " The Commission has an important role to play in ensuring that AI remains innovation-intensive, and that consumers and businesses have a broad choice of AI systems. This is why we are monitoring the development of the AI sector."

The two sections on our external website on Antitrust and Cartels have now been merged into one section.
This change has been made following the internal survey carried out earlier this year asking you all for suggestions on how we could improve COMP’s website.
More of your suggestions have also been taken into account, and we will continue to implement them over the coming months.
In the meantime, if you do have further ideas to improve the site, please do not hesitate to send an email to our webmaster.

Today, October 20th, the third episode of the series “How can we make markets fairer?” took place in Salamanca, Spain.
In case you missed it, you can watch the recorded debate.
More episodes of the How can we make markets fairer? series will come, so watch this space!