Workshop on regulation and competition in light of digitalisation

31 January 2018 OECD Conference Centre, Paris

The OECD organised a one-day workshop for competition officials on 31 January 2018 in Paris to provide insights into how common restrictions, arising in the context of digitalisation, are identified and analysed by competition authorities and other agencies.

In the fast-moving reality of digitalisation, existing regulatory frameworks designed for traditional products and services may not be suitable for the digital economy. In some cases, they may even prevent or slow down the development of new digital products and services. Conversely, new policy measures might be needed to enable digitalisation.

The objective of the workshop was thus to discuss competition assessment of regulatory barriers in the context of digitalisation. The workshop included practical examples of how common restrictions, arising in a digital context, are identified and analysed by competition authorities and other agencies. Building on these experiences and on contributions from other OECD Directorates, the workshop provided an opportunity to consider whether the details of the OECD Competition Assessment Toolkit need adapting and, if so, how.

Read the workshop summary

Programme & Speakers

The workshop tackled three areas: Sharing economy and platforms, Healthcare and Financial services.

David Stallibrass (Senior advisor at Fingleton Associates, UK) shared his views on the platforms topic.
Martin Wenzl (Policy analyst, OECD Health Division) explored the healthcare sector.
Miguel de la Mano (Executive Vice President, Compass Lexecon) talked about Fintech.

Selected countries shared their experiences with existing regulations that have proved restrictive for digitalisation, or with the challenges posed by lack of regulations.

A discussion was held on of how the most common issues can be dealt with by a standard competition assessment methodology, such as the OECD toolkit, or whether modifications and examples are necessary.