On September 25, a seminar titled “Assessment of Competition in the Cross-Border Markets of the EAEU: Practice and Methodology” was held in Moscow at the Collegium Hall of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC). The event was chaired by Maksim Yermalovich, EEC Minister for Competition and Antitrust Regulation, and brought together representatives of the EEC, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia, and leading experts in antitrust law.
In his address, Alexey Ivanov, Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, proposed a fundamental rethinking of traditional approaches to antitrust regulation. The central question he raised was: Are the conventional methods of market analysis and market share calculation still adequate tools for protecting competition in today’s economic reality?
Ivanov emphasized a key problem of excessive specialization in antitrust practice. Regulators often focus on perfecting the technical aspects of market boundary analysis and market share calculations — without questioning the validity of the approach itself.
In the photo: Alexey Ivanov © HSE University
He noted that the Russian definition of competition — as a market condition in which an economic entity cannot unilaterally influence the general conditions of market circulation — is not inherently tied to quantitative production indicators or rigid market boundaries. In the digital economy, new phenomena have emerged that cannot be easily described in the terms of industrial economics. Companies may exert systemic influence over market conditions without holding significant shares in conventionally defined markets, Ivanov noted.
“I believe we are at a transitional stage where the level of scientific understanding has advanced considerably, while practice and legislation still lag behind. This lag is largely due to the fact that regulators devote their energy to solving a technical task that may already be obsolete.”
The realities of the digital economy demand a new approach to antitrust regulation. At the core of this new paradigm lies the concept of an “ecosystem” — not merely a mechanical aggregation of different markets, but a complex network of interconnections organized according to the principles of living ecosystems. A key feature of such systems is the dominance of weak links over the strong ones that regulators have traditionally focused on.
Germany has introduced into its antitrust legislation the concept of “paramount significance for competition”, which allows regulators to identify companies playing the role of “keystone species” in digital ecosystems. Just as certain species in biological ecosystems (such as wolves in Yellowstone National Park) have a cascading systemic effect, digital platforms can shape the functioning of multiple interconnected markets.
The ecosystem approach is particularly relevant in the analysis of conglomerate mergers. When companies from different industries merge — for instance, Google’s acquisition of the fitness tracker Fitbit — traditional concentration assessment methods fail to capture the real economic logic. The value of such transactions lies in the creation of ecosystem effects that standard analysis overlooks.
Ivanov proposed revising the presumptions applied to mergers, shifting from a permissive to a more cautious approach that takes systemic risks to competition into account. This is especially important given the rise of artificial intelligence, which is becoming an infrastructural element for building and reinforcing digital ecosystems.
In the photo: Alexey Ivanov © Eurasian Economic Commission
As an alternative to traditional methods, Ivanov suggested the broader use of market inquiries — a tool widely employed in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions and BRICS countries, particularly in South Africa. Market inquiries allow for the examination of competitive issues outside the constraints of administrative proceedings and enable structural interventions to reshape markets.
Antitrust regulation, Ivanov argued, must evolve from mechanistic to ecological methods of market governance — approaches that account for the complex adaptive systems of the modern economy. This shift requires an interdisciplinary perspective, combining legal expertise with methods from systems analysis.
He also proposed introducing criteria for assessing “ecosystem power”, including control over access points, platform rules, data, and interfaces, as well as indicators of weak inter-market linkages. In his view, merger assessment methodologies should be updated to move beyond simple aggregation of market shares toward evaluating ecosystem reinforcement and architectural-behavioral effects.
© HSE University
In conclusion, Ivanov noted that the transition from mechanistic to “ecological” regulation represents an opportunity to adequately reflect the systemic power of digital platforms in the cross-border markets of the EAEU and to implement more targeted measures, especially when traditional market shares and boundaries no longer represent companies’ real influence structures.
The seminar was also attended by: E.A. Brendeleva, Head of the Department of Economic Theory, MGIMO University, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor; I.V. Knyazeva, Head of the Center for Competition Policy and Economics, Siberian Institute of Management (RANEPA branch), Doctor of Economics; I.V. Nikolaicheva, Head of the Department for Telecommunications and IT Regulation, FAS Russia; I.M. Mikulich, Head of the Department for Control and Strategic Planning, Department of Antimonopoly Regulation, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor; K.V. Entin, Acting Deputy Head of the Secretariat, Head of the Expert and Analytical Division of the EAEU Court;B.A. Isaev, Deputy Director of the Department of Antimonopoly Regulation; S.V. Maksimov, Director of the Department of Antimonopoly Regulation, Doctor of Law, Professor.
