Henri Piffaut – Vice-President of the French Competition Authority: On the Latest in Digital Markets
Henri Piffaut Vice-President of L'Autorité de la concurrence
Conversation on the key developments, trends, objectives and priorities of the French Competition Authority.
The Autorité is clearly among the most impactful and pioneering competition agencies and it would be hard to find a better person to elaborate on its ongoing mission and vision than Henri Piffaut.
We discussed various topics including but not limited to
– institutional specificities of the Autorité
– importance of separation between investigation and decision-making stages
– if the DMA will decrease the gap between competition authorities and Big Tech
– challenges with implementing the DMA and the impact on ex-post cases
role of the mechanism of interim measures
– “Friends of the DMA”
– role of national competition authorities in tailoring competition in digital markets
– multiplication of complements to the DMA at national level
– end-result of the DMA – what do we ultimately want?
– DMA and broader societal objectives: where should we stop
– specificities of exploitation and exclusion cases
– communication and relationship of the Autorité with the French Government
– Art 22 EUMR: new reading or reshaping priorities
– programmatic advertising & the pioneering role of the Autorité in investigating key cases
– commitments: does the mechanism work, is it sufficient and is there room for improvement
– cooperation between the French privacy regulator and the Autorité de la concurrence
– privacy as a defence for anticompetitive conduct: is it a new trend
– concept of ecosystem: a new helpful epistemic tool or a buzz-word
– the most important recommendation to students
We have also addressed the latest development in Digital Markets Act and we have ended with some broader questions on the goals, nature and trends of EU Competition Law & Policy.
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The Digital Markets Research Hub is an independent academic initiative aiming at scrutinising the functioning of competition/regulation in digital markets. We host one-to-one interviews with leading policymakers, regulators and practitioners. We also organise online mini-workshops inviting high-profile experts and academics in various fields of digital competition law & policy to discuss the most vibrant issues of the ongoing regulatory reforms in digital markets.
While having our clear normative stand on the matters discussed within the hub, we value different views and invite relevant stakeholders and thinkers representing the whole spectrum of reasonable positions on how to regulate competition in digital markets.
All our materials are available at YouTube channel, which you are very welcome to subscribe to.
Interview is organised & conducted by Prof. Oles Andriychuk, Newcastle Law School, UK