On November 16-17 in Rio de Janeiro, the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre in cooperation with FGV University School of Law and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense of Brazil (CADE) hosted the 2nd BRICS+ Digital Competition Forum.
On the first day of the forum, a Memorandum of Intent was signed between the BRICS Competition Centre and the Brazilian Centre for Technology and Society Development, FGV. The forum also included a meeting of the BRICS Working Group for the Research of Competition Issues in Digital Markets. The BRICS Centre’s experts presented a preliminary report entitled "Cooperation of the BRICS Countries in Global Merger Review: Challenges and Perspectives".
The Forum aims to address challenges, share insights, and promote cooperation among BRICS jurisdictions. The opportunity provides a platform for competition authorities, academics, and civil society to exchange ideas and explore harmonized approaches to navigate the complexities of the modern digital economy. The forum participants included representatives of regulators from the new BRICS member countries that will join the organization in 2024, in particular Egypt, Argentina and Iran. Antitrust practitioners and researchers from BRICS countries and Europe also participated in the forum.
Agenda
Day 1
10.00 – 10.15
Welcome and introduction to the workshop
- Rodrigo Viana, Head of International Relations, FGV Law School Rio de Janeiro;
- Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV Law School Rio de Janeiro;
- Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre.
10.15 – 10.25
Signing of a Memorandum of Intent between the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre and the Technology and Society Centre, FGV
- Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre;
- Luca Belli, Coordinator, Technology and Society Centre.
10.25 – 12.25
Meeting of the BRICS Working Group for Research of Competition Issues in Digital Markets
This session is aimed at taking stock of recent trends and initiatives in the enforcement of competition in digital markets in the BRICS and reflects on the BRICS authorities’ report on digital markets.
Moderator:
- Alexandre Cordeiro, President, CADE
Speakers:
- Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV Direito Rio & UNDP Consultant, CADE;
- Ricardo Medeiros, Deputy Chief Economist, CADE;
- Hardin Ratshisusu, Deputy Commissioner, Competition Commission of South Africa;
- Daria Tsyganova, FAS Russia;
- Ms. Jyoti Jindgar Bhanot, Advisor, CCI (online);
- Ma Zongxu, Vice Director, Office of Merger Review in Digital Economy, Second Department ofAnti-Monopoly Enforcement, SAMR (online);
- Catalina Aldama, National Director of Competition Promotion, Comisión Nacional de Defensa dela Competencia (online);
- Mahmoud Momtaz, President, Egyptian Competition Authority (online);
- Iman Cheratian, Iranian Competition Authority (online).
Academic commentator:
- Eduardo Pontual, Professor, Rio de Janeiro State University
Leading questions:
- What are the main achievements of the Report?
- What are the main developments since the presentation of the preliminary version of the Report at the BRICS+ Digital Competition Forum in November 2022?
- Is it possible to develop a harmonized approach to digital markets?
- Are there some low-hanging fruits in terms of cooperation opportunities?
- To what extent can we extend cooperation to BRICS+?
- What is the authority's vision in dealing with digital platforms?
- Should we put together a proposal for a session at ICN 2024 in Brazil?
14.00 – 16.00
Presentation of the merger cooperation framework
This session presents a research report on the BRICS cooperation framework in mergers review by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.
Moderator:
- Alexandre Barreto, General Superintendent, CADE
Speakers:
- Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre;
- Daria Kotova, Researcher, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre.
Commentators:
- Alexandre Cordeiro, President, CADE;
- Alexandre Barreto, General Superintendent, CADE;
- Victor Fernandes, Commissioner, CADE;
- Gustavo Augusto Freitas de Lima, Commissioner, CADE
- Hardin Ratshisusu, Deputy Commissioner, Competition Commission of South Africa;
- Daria Tsyganova, FAS Russia;
- Ms. Jyoti Jindgar Bhanot, Advisor, CCI (online);
- Caio Mario Pereira Neto da Silva, Professor, FGV Law School São Paulo;
- Dina Waked, Associate Professor, Sciences Po Law School (online);
- Vincente Bagnoli, Professor, Mc Kenzie Law School São Paulo (online);
- Eduardo Gaban, Director, Brazilian Institute for Competition and Innovation (online);
- Lucas Trevisani, Director of Competition Promotion, Comisión Nacional de Defensa de laCompetencia (online);
- Mahmoud Momtaz, President, Egyptian Competition Authority (online).
Leading questions:
- What is the state of the art in the BRICS cooperation framework concerning mergers?
- What are the main obstacles that the BRICS competition agencies face in their cooperation on global mergers review?
- How efficient is the current cooperation framework to deal with challenges posed by ecosystem mergers and megamergers that are filed globally?
- What are the solutions and ways to enhance the existing cooperation regime? How to make it adaptive to the current and future complexities of the global economy?
16.15 – 17.45
Taking Ecosystem Remedies Seriously: The Promise of Coordinated Antitrust Action
This session aims for a discussion on the efficiency and relevance of remedies most often applied in ecosystem cases.
Moderator:
- Alexey Ivanov, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre and Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV Law School Rio de Janeiro
Speakers:
- Alexandre Barreto, General Superintendent, CADE;
- Lilian Marques, Chief Economist, CADE;
- Caio Mario Da Silva Pereira Neto, Professor, Fundação Getulio Vargas Law School, São Paulo;
- Bruno Carballa Smichowski, Policy Officer, Joint Research Centre, European Commission (online);
- Bruno Renzetti, Professor of Law, INSPER Law School;
- Silvia Fagá, Director, LCA Consultores;
- Svetlana Golovanova, Associate Professor, National Research University, Higher School of Economics;
- Camila Leite, Legal Officer, Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defence (IDEC);
- Juliano Maranhão, Professor, University of São Paulo Law School.
Leading questions:
- How to take into account the multi-market impact of certain conduct at the remedy design stage?
- What are the main cooperation challenges in the adoption of international remedies to digital platform conduct?
- How can authorities with different mandates cooperate when imposing remedies? Can guidelines be developed to promote interdisciplinary approaches?
- How should authorities address trade-offs between different objectives, and between different impacts across markets?
Detailed Agenda: Day 2
11.00 – 12.30
Exclusion, dependence and/or exploitation? Diverging approaches to ensure sustainability of digital platform conduct
This session reflects on the relevance of the current theories of harm applicable to digital platforms.
Moderator:
- Nicolo Zingales, Professor, FGV Law School RJ
Speakers:
- Marcela Mattiuzzo, Partner, VMСA Advogados (online);
- Friso Bostoen, Assistant Professor, Tilburg Law School;
- Victor Fernandes, Commissioner, CADE;
- Lilian Marques, Chief Economist, CADE;
- Konstantinos Stylianou, Professor, University of Glasgow Law School (online);
- Paulo Furquim, Professor and Dean, INSPER Law School;
- Rafael Zanatta, Director, Data Privacy Brasil.
Leading Questions:
- Is exclusionary antitrust enforcement an effective tool to deal with certain digital platform conduct, such as scraping, data appropriation and quality degradation?
- Is the concept of abuse of economic dependence useful to deal with conducts that do not give rise to exclusion?
- What are/should be the standards for exploitative conduct in a non-price context?
- How to promote international harmonization around exploitative conduct enforcement?
- How to best conceptualize the division of tasks between exclusionary and exploitative conduct enforcement?
13.30 – 15.00
Digitalization and Financialization of the Food Value Chain: The Challenge to Sustain Resilience
This session looks at the effects from digitalization and financialization in the global food value chains and disruptions they cause both for producers and consumers.
Moderator:
- Paulo Furquim, Professor and Dean, INSPER Law School
Speakers:
- Alexey Ivanov, Director, Director, BRICS Competition Law & Policy Centre;
- Hardin Ratshisusu, Deputy Commissioner, South African Competition Commission;
- Victor Fernandes, Commissioner, CADE;
- Carolina Saito, Head of Unit, CADE;
- Claudio Lombardi, Senior Lecturer, University of Aberdeen;
- Dina Waked, Sciences Po Law School (online);
- Guilherme Fowler, Professor, INSPER.
Leading questions:
- How have digitalization and financialization changed the global food value chain? Who are the winners and the losers?
- What is the role of competition authorities in preserving food security against this backdrop?
- Is the global food value chain framework still relevant for the analysis of competition in the food & agriculture markets and how can it be further developed?
- What is the role of sustainability considerations in competition analysis of the global food value chain?
15.30 – 17.00
Ex ante framework: how to structure a regime that takes into account the specificities of the local ecosystem?
This session continues the on-going global discussion on the appropriateness and long-term efficiency of the ex ante regime for digital markets.
Moderator:
- Patricia Sampaio, Professor, FGV Law School Rio de Janeiro
Speakers:
- Dina Waked, Sciences Po Law School (online);
- Friso Bostoen, Assistant Professor, Tilburg Law School;
- Nicolo Zingales, Professor of Law, FGV Law School Rio de Janeiro;
- Gabriel Tajra, Associate, Advocacia Del Chiaro;
- Marcos Lyra, Professor, Federal University Fluminense Department of Economics;
- Silvia Fagá, Director, LCA Consultores;
- Victor Fernandes, Commissioner, CADE;
- Vinicius Klein, Professor, Federal University of Paraná Law School.
Leading questions:
- What are the main reasons behind the recent tendency to adopt ex ante frameworks to deal with digital platform conduct? To what extent is this justified?
- What should be the goals of these regulations, and the criteria to designate regulated entities?
- What efficiencies or other justifications should these frameworks recognize?
- How to ensure flexibility in these frameworks without undermining legal certainty?
- Can a transparency-focused regulation help in dealing with some of the most prominent concerns around digital platform conduct?