Author: Ian Brown

Australia’s coat of arms, featuring a kangaroo and amu standing on either side of a shield on a leafy autumnal tree

Digital competition law reform Down Under 🦘

Posted on by

With my old friend and colleague Prof. Chris Marsden, we have just responded to the Australian Treasury’s consultation on creating a Digital Markets Act-like ex ante competition regulation regime. We have focused in particular on the possibilities of interoperability mandates, and on lessons learned so far from the EU’s experience with the DMA.

Continue reading

Operating Systems need privacy-protective friend-finding services

Posted on by

The NYT headline (Did Apple just kill social apps?) is over-the-top, but a reminder of the impact Big Tech firms can have on entire market sectors with their product decisions — and why the EU was right to legislate rules for fairness and contestability in the Digital Markets Act. Indeed, further interventions might be necessary, like mandating privacy-protective friend-connecting services.

Continue reading
S. Dustdar speaking in front of a European Parliament banner, alongside Francesca Bria

Towards European Digital Independence

Posted on by

Congratulations to Alexandra Geese, Francesca Bria and Cristina Caffarra for organising a timely and interesting conference at the European Parliament on the idea of a “Euro-stack” (building on existing “stacks”/digital public infrastructure created by India and Brazil). You can watch the whole 5-hour event; I made a few notes (below) as I watched the middle half.

Continue reading
Mario Draghi speaks at a lecturn at the European Parliament, with a slide “20th Anniversary of the Euro"

Super Mario publishes EU “competitiveness” report

Posted on by

Part A of Mario Draghi’s report for the EU on “competitiveness” reform was published this morning. In one sentence, he concludes: “Europe must profoundly refocus its collective efforts on closing the innovation gap with the US and China, especially in advanced technologies.”

Continue reading