Democratic Antitrust for Digital Markets

Today’s digital environment constantly tests democratic liberties and processes. Can competition law make digital democracy more resilient?

In this talk, Vicky Robertson relies on her forthcoming book, Democratic Antitrust for Digital Markets, to discuss how competition law can be leveraged for liberal democracy in the digital age.

Digital platforms increasingly shape public discourse and influence electoral outcomes. By controlling the infrastructure and the data required for this interference with democracy, they hold a power that is not democratically legitimised. Multidisciplinary research has revealed the serious implications of this imbalance for democratic liberties, processes and values.

Leveraging competition law is one way forward. Competition law is rooted in an understanding that economic power needs to be kept in check to prevent it from morphing into unwarranted political power, and it has long shaped the behaviour of digital platforms. The book negotiates the boundaries of competition law and develops a comprehensive framework that relies on competition law and policy to safeguard liberal democracy in digital platform markets (‘democratic antitrust for digital markets’). Its plan for action encompasses policy dialogue, agency cooperation, multi-stakeholder engagement, priority-setting, expert reports, market studies, notions of power in digital markets, theories of harm revolving around democracy, media pluralism

in merger control, and democracy-enhancing remedies. It provides a concrete and actionable toolbox to confront the democratic risks of concentrated digital power that the author will discuss with participants in the talk.