22 November 2024
The 3rd BRICS+ Digital Competition Forum is a collaborative event focused on key competition issues related to the digital economy.
The Forum aims to address challenges, share insights and promote cooperation between BRICS jurisdictions. The opportunity provides a platform for competition authorities, academics and civil society to exchange ideas and explore harmonized approaches to navigating the complexities of the modern digital economy.
Agenda
09.00 – Welcome coffee
09.20 – 09.40
Welcome and introduction to the roundtable
- Rodrigo Vianna, Head of International Relations, FGV Law School in Rio de Janeiro
- Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV Law School in Rio de Janeiro
- Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre
- Alexandre Barreto, General Superintendent, CADE
09.40 – 11.20
Session 1. Ecosystems: emerging theories of harm and policy approaches
Value creation and distribution in digital markets is strongly impacted by players who create sophisticated ecosystems offering a constellation of products and services, often spanning multiple markets, connected through synergies and often having harmonised technical standards. The BRICS academic report on digital markets competition presented by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre in 2019 at the biennial BRICS International Competition Conference pioneered the use of the term ‘ecosystem’ in the competition law context. Recently a number of antitrust authorities have started to experiment with “ecosystem theories of harm” to capture the importance of the entire ecosystem of pre-existing assets and capabilities for post–merger competition. The panel will discuss these emerging theories of harm and the different enforcement approaches to tackle the ecosystems-wide dominance taken by antitrust and digital markets authorities around the world.
- Chair: Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre
Provokers (30 mins.):
- André Vellozo, CEO, DrumWave
- Alexandre Ferreira, Director, Program of the Secretary on Economic Reforms, Ministry of Finance
- Bruno Carballa Smichowski, Research Officer, Joint Research Centre
- Cristina Caffarra, Honorary Professor, University College of London (online)
Contributions of the BRICS competition authorities and other participants (60 mins.)
11.20 – 11.40 – Coffee Break
11.40 – 13.20
Session 2. Competition implications of the digitalization: a case of the global food value chains
Food production and distribution for a long time was the least digitalized primary sector of the global economy. This is rapidly changing with expansion of digital farming and the platformization of the food trade along the global value chains. Digital platforms for food procurement at the farm gate and food delivery to end customers are becoming a prevalent form of market organization in the industry. Often these platforms are built as part of broader digital ecosystems organized and orchestrated by already powerful digital giants entering the food sector, and sometimes (like in the case of Covantis) these platforms aggregate the interests of the incumbent dominant players controlling important segments of global value chains (in this case – the global grain trade). Digitalization of food value chains usually coincides with increasing financialization of this sector. With growing volatility of food prices especially of globally traded key agriculture commodities the way this technological and economic transformation takes place becomes extremely important for social, economic and environmental sustainability. This poses a number of new challenges for competition authorities around the world, especially in the BRICS countries.
The panel will discuss how the digitalization of the food value chain is affecting the market and the potential antitrust concerns related to this phenomenon, such as facilitation of tacit collusion among the incumbent dominant players, further consolidation and verticalization through the data collection, the imposition of unfair conditions, and the impact of diversity and resilience on the survival of non–digital value chains.
- Chair: Anastasia Nesvatailova, Director, Macroeconomic and Development Policies Branch, GDS,UNCTAD
Provokers (30 mins.):
- Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre
- Lilian Marques, Chief Economist, СADE
- Simon Roberts, Professor, Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, University of Johannesburg (online)
Contributions of the BRICS competition authorities and other participants (70 mins.)
13.20 – 14.40 – Lunch (FGV premises)
14.40 – 16.20
Session 3. Concentration of economic power in the era of AI
Antitrust authorities have recently raised concerns related to partnerships and other commercial arrangements for the development of AI systems and data analytics. Such arrangements may not always fall within local merger control regimes, and, therefore, they may be put in place without an assessment of their potential competitive impacts on the markets.
The panel will discuss recent partnerships in the digital sector and investigations initiated by regulators in some jurisdictions to assess whether the companies’ partnership gives them an unfair advantage against competitors and results in distortive effects on their markets. Important attention may be also paid to the role played by intangible assets in attracting investments and the assessment of killer acquisitions. What features shall be taken into account to consider such types of transactions most properly?
- Chair: Patricia Sampaio, FGV Law School in Rio de Janeiro
Provokers (30 mins.):
- John Newman, Professor, University of Miami Law School
- Payal Malik, Visiting Professor, ICRIER Prosus Centre for Internet and the Digital Economy, former Advisor and Head of Economic Division, Competition Commission of India (online)
- Elena Rovenskaya, Program Director of Advancing System Analysis (ASA) Program, International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IASA) (online)
Contributions of the BRICS competition authorities and other participants (70 mins.)
16.20 – 16.50 – Coffee Break
16.50 – 18.30
Session 4. Artificial Intelligence: Regulation and Use
Emerging technologies such as generative AI can stimulate disruptive innovation and encourage more competitive markets. However, anticompetitive mergers or exclusionary conduct can quickly tip emerging digital markets and give one or a few dominant firms control over developing technologies.
The panel will discuss how BRICS lawmakers and regulators are working to ensure the development of trustworthy artificial intelligence while also seeking to guarantee competition for the supply of AI and to detect and punish antitrust conduct resulting from or facilitated by the use of AI by firms.
- Chair: Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV/RJ
Provokers (30 mins.):
- Luca Belli, Professor, FGV Law School in Rio de Janeiro
- Marcela Mattiuzzo, Professor, INSPER Law school
- Vikas Kathuria, Professor, BML Munjal School of Law
Contributions of the BRICS competition authorities and other participants (70 mins.)
18.30 – Closing
19.00 – Reception and dinner hosted by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre