Professor Ioannis Lianos appointed to EU High Level Group on the Digital Markets Act

Professor Ioannis Lianos, Professor of Global Competition Law and Public Policy at UCL Laws and President of the Hellenic Competition Commission, was selected along with five other Heads of Competition Authorities (from the 27 Member States) to participate in the High-Level Group representing the European Competition Network.

The group will be composed of 30 representatives nominated from the Body of the European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and European Data Protection Board, the European Competition Network (ECN), the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC Network), and the European Regulatory Group of Audiovisual Media Regulators (ERGA).

The European Commission adopted a decision to establish a High-Level Group on the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA is a piece of the EU digital regulatory framework which entered into force on 1 November 2022 and will apply from 2 May 2023. It specifically applies to online platforms designated as ‘gatekeepers' which are large digital platforms acting as important gateways between business users and consumers.

The High-Level Group may provide the Commission with advice and expertise to ensure that the DMA and other sectoral regulations applicable to gatekeepers are implemented in a coherent and complementary manner. It may also provide expertise in market investigations into emerging services and practices, to help ensure that the DMA is future-proof. 

Professor Lianos has also recently published a paper, 'Value extraction and institutions in digital capitalism: Towards a law and political economy synthesis for competition law’. It presents a new theoretical framework for competition law and policy. The paper forms part of a bigger project on Competition Law in a Complex Economy, complementing Professor Lianos’ research on Polycentric Competition Law and work on sustainability and industrial policy.