Consumer welfare

Europe has been a frontrunner in the regulation of artificial intelligence on a global scale. The adoption of the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) defines one – despite important – step of the…

In 2021, an insightful interviewer asked Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for competition law and policy, whether it was “time for a feminist antitrust policy”. The interviewer noted that …

The collapse of Crédit Suisse and its subsequent takeover by UBS has produced far-reaching effects, affecting the global banking landscape. Financial stability considerations and market turmoil…

Facts and court proceedings Before the start of the liberalization process in 1999 with Legislative Decree 79/1999 (“Decreto Bersani”), the Italian electricity market was run singlehandedly by the…

In many jurisdictions, antitrust authorities enforce not only antitrust and competition laws, but also consumer protection rules, which may apply to similar conduct.  Not so in the European Union (EU…

On April 11, 2018, the European Commission published a proposed new EU law as part of a package of consumer protection measures. The proposed new law would introduce the first Europe-wide consumer…

Sharing economy firms are disrupting traditional industries across the globe. As Tom Goodwin once put it: "Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular…

The second part of the blog on the FCO’s background paper on “Competition and Consumer Conduct – Conflict or Parallelism between Consumer Protection and Antitrust Law?” covers the interplay between…

The Federal Cartel Office (FCO) held a conference with antitrust experts (professors and judges) on October 6. 2016, on “Competition and Consumer Conduct – Conflict or Parallelism between Consumer…