Competition Law and Policy and the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

About this event

Co-organised by Prof. Ioannis Lianos and Prof. Dina Waked

This roundtable is organized in the context of a partnership between the Centre for Law, Economics and Society at UCL, Sciences Po (as part of the Project Liberty Institute research project on TRACK AI [Transparency, Regulation, Antitrust, Contracts, Knowledge Exploring Governance Gaps in AI Firms]) and the Inclusive Competition Forum (ICF), aiming to explore adequate regulatory responses to the competition challenges raised by AI and the increasing collaborations between major technology companies and AI firms.

As the fourth industrial revolution unveils, fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, we are witnessing unparalleled changes in our economic, social and political systems propelled by generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), gene-editing and synthetic biology, robotic automation, and quantum computing. These developments raise important questions as to how competition authorities may engage with the threats of competition harm of novel technologies and reconcile this mission with the new emphasis put on industrial policy, growth and innovation.

Looking to AI, initially, competition authorities, along with academia, concentrated on algorithmic coordination. However, as AI adoption has expanded across the economy, attention has shifted to exploitation concerns affecting consumers and trade partners due to corporate extraction strategies and the imposition of unfair terms to business or end-users of these novel technologies. Most recently, focus has turned to three interrelated concerns: the high economic concentration within various segments of the AI stack, the development of partnerships between Big Tech and AI companies, the widespread deployment of algorithms throughout the economy, and the inherent characteristics of these technologies as potential sources of exploitation and value capture. As control over these artificial worlds becomes concentrated in a handful of dominant technology corporations, governments are now raising previously neglected questions about industrial policy and digital sovereignty.

This gathering will unite enforcement officials and specialists from developed and developing nations to address how competition regulators can tackle emerging technological challenges, from artificial intelligence to quantum computing and synthetic biology. The event will also incorporate civil society perspectives on balancing innovation and growth with social equity and inclusiveness. By fostering dialogue between competition authorities, civil society organizations, and academic researchers, this initiative aims to establish an annual tradition for CLES, Sciences Po and ICF, aligned with the OECD December meetings.

Participants

• Beatriz Botero Arcila, Sciences Po Paris
• Cristina Caffarra, UCL & CEPR
• Bruno Carballa Smichowski, EU JRC
• Sarah Cardell, CEO, UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA)
• Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
• Thomas Cheng, Hong Kong University
• Bogdan Chiritoiu, President, Romanian Competition Council
• Nuno Cunha Rodrigues, President, Portuguese Competition Authority
• Todd Davies, UCL Faculty of Laws
• Mark Dempsey, Article19
• Axel Desmedt, President, Belgian Competition Authority
• John Elias, DAAG, US Department of Justice (DoJ)
• Eleni Gouliou, UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA)
• Teodora Groza, Sciences Po Paris
• Yann Guthmann, Head, Digital Economy Unit, French Competition Authority
• Natalie Harsdorf, Director General, Federal Austrian Competition Authority
• Matthew Heim, GW Competition and Innovation Lab
• Elisabetta Iossa, Member of the Board, Italian Competition Authority
• Jonathan Kanter, AAG, US Department of Justice (DoJ) Antitrust Division
• Ioannis Lianos, UCL & CAT
• Stavros Makris, UCL Faculty of Laws
• Andrea Marvan, President, COFECE
• Frederic Marty, CNRS-Université Côte d'Azur and OFCE - Sciences Po
• Kamil Nejezchleb, Director General, Czech Competition Authority
• Maria Teresa Da Piedade Moreira, Head of Competition and Consumer Protection, UNCTAD
• Chara Nikolopoulou, Vice-president, Hellenic Competition Commission
• Cecilia Rikap, UCL
• Benoit Rottembourg, Regalia, INRIA
• Margarida Silva, SOMO
• Martijn Snoep, President, Dutch ACM
• Doris Tshepe, Competition Commissioner, Competition Commission of South Africa
• Saverio Valentino, Member of the Board, Italian Competition Authority (AGCM)
• Elodie Vandenhende, Deputy head – Digital economy unit, French Competition Authority
• Dina Waked, Sciences Po Paris

Schedule:

17:30 Registration
17:40 Event begins
19:50 Reception

For more information: i.lianos@ucl.ac.uk