Agenda – Oxera

Platforms at the gate? Initial reactions to the Commission’s digital consultations

June 2020

On 2 June 2020, the European Commission launched a consultation on proposals for a new competition tool (NCT) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) package. If enacted, they would represent a significant change in competition enforcement in the EU, and a major step-up in the regulatory rules and oversight of the digital economy.

Living remotely: the value of being connected

June 2020

Prior to early 2020, the idea of living remotely might have triggered visions of moving to the northernmost Scottish island, or to the far edges of Alaska, and becoming self-sufficient—retreating to a more primitive lifestyle, away from the demands of modern life and its reliance on technology and the Internet.

To provide or not to provide access? The Dutch broadband joint SMP case

May 2020

On 17 March 2020, the Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (CBb) published its long-awaited verdict on the appeal against the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) 2018 finding of joint dominance in the Dutch retail broadband market. Why did the CBb rule in favour of the appellants, and what are the implications of this finding for the regulation of wholesale broadband access in the telecoms sector?

Digital platform regulation: What are the proposals across Europe?

December 2019

Calls to ‘do something’ about tech giants are getting louder. Some suggest that breaking them up is the best way to go, but such strong intervention is absent from the most developed regulatory proposals seen so far. Taking into account recent prominent reports from (or for) the European Commission and several national competition authorities, what are the main proposals on the table, and are they plausible?

How does social media shape purposeful business?

December 2019

Society is playing a growing role in shaping the way that businesses operate. Reflecting this, have become platforms to highlight good and bad business practice and help people coordinate responses. To what extent does this pressure influence core business operations? —and therefore the future of business? Tim Hogg, a behavioural economist at Oxera, takes a look at the role of social media in the context of thinking Beyond the Bottom Line.

Political control of state-owned utilities in the UK

November 2019

The UK Labour Party’s proposal to nationalise core utilities has renewed debate about whether nationalisation is a good or a bad thing. Tim Tutton, Associate at the Centre for Competition Policy (University of East Anglia, UK), takes a different approach. Focusing on the issue of political control, he explores whether lessons can be learned—from both the nationalised era and the privatised era—and how any future (potential) nationalisations might be made to work more effectively than in the past

State aid spotlight on tax: the General Court’s judgments on Fiat and Starbucks

October 2019

In 2015, the European Commission ordered Starbucks and Fiat to each pay €20m–€30m in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, respectively, as their tax arrangements were found to constitute illegal state aid. On 24 September 2019, the General Court upheld the Commission’s Fiat decision, but annulled the Starbucks decision. What were the key economic issues in these cases, and what are the implications of the judgments?

EU broadband: co-investing in a faster future

September 2019

Rolling out very high-capacity networks (VHCNs) across Europe to deal with ever-increasing broadband demands is challenging. To incentivise investment, the European Commission has introduced new conditions relating to co-investment agreements, including a promise (subject to certain conditions) not to regulate SMP operators that enter into an investment agreement with at least one other operator. Peter Culham, Senior Adviser, Felipe Flórez Duncan, Partner, and Michael Weekes, Senior Consultant, ask: is it enough to unlock investment in VHCNs?

Sharing is caring: supporting the roll-out of 5G networks

July 2019

Early 5G services are being launched in major towns and cities around the world, providing enhanced mobile broadband services to users. However, further investment in new network infrastructure will be required to support widespread deployment of 5G and take full advantage of the technology’s transformational capabilities. Given the significant costs involved, network sharing agreements may be increasingly important. Will this greater industry collaboration have an impact on head-to-head competition? If so, how should this tension be assessed?

Linking the world: economics and finance in new infrastructure projects

May 2019

With modern society increasingly relying on large infrastructure projects, we look at the economics and financial considerations that underpin their development and delivery. Three particular aspects are explored: how to finance them, weigh their costs and benefits, and build in effective incentive properties

Fairness and competition in online markets: friends or foes?

April 2019

Fairness is emerging as an increasingly important policy goal across sectors. We set out a framework for assessing fairness concerns, and examine the relationship between the aims of competition policy and fairness in current debates. Do the European Commission’s platform-to-business initiative and reputation systems for sharing platforms lead to fairer processes? And do online price differentiation and negotiations between platforms and content creators lead to fair outcomes? What is the role of competition in all of this?

Death of an old star…evolution of a new one?

February 2019

‘Superstar firms’ are increasingly dominating markets. Network effects may consolidate the position of these firms, but they can also help new entrants to undermine them. In some markets, network effects will both dampen competition ‘within’ the market and spur competition ‘for’ the market. Francesca Arduini, Oxera Analyst, argues that we can employ the framework of evolutionary game theory to derive four key policy insights into this topic