Competition Law In The Digital Economy In EU & USA

Ashwani Kant Singh, B.A., LL.B., Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University Agra, LL.M. (Corporate Laws), National Law University, Jodhpur (Rajasthan)

1. INTRODUCTION

Liberalization, Privatization & Globalization, these three words are no ordinary terms and will go down in history as responsible for the dawn of the Internet age.1A quarter century ago, it wouldn`t have been possible to imagine that anything called Internet would take the world by storm, at the beginning of the century no ordinary person would have believed that internet can help us shop online without leaving the comfort of our home, a score of decades ago no ordinary person believed that there would be a thing called smartphone or there would be a social networking via internet or there would be an all mighty search engine and that they all would go on to monopolize the internet. Advances in technology has created a disruption which has provided each individual with an opportunity to showcase their talent, which ultimately for consumers have increased their choices and for market, the competition. While the competition soared in the brick and mortar business, the virtual world in recent years has seen little to no competition for digital behemoths or digital disruptors.2 It is no coincidence that world`s largest five companies by market value – Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Facebook and Microsoft are tech companies.3Today, with advent of technology and internet, few taps on our smartphone, tablet or laptop could help us discover myriads of products, their reviews and prices. It doesn`t matter how large the world is, with internet it is a click away. Whether it is finding your lost way through google maps or a place to stay in a stranger land through Airbnb or connecting with friends or finding your future spouse through Facebook or purchasing something you didn`t even know existed via Amazon or auctioning items via e-bay or learning anything via Google; the world has become a global village, where everything and everyone is connected (or can be connected) online. Freed from the restrictions of boundaries and haggling at the brick and mortar system continued through generations – we are better off in this digital age. If all these have been achieved in just over 2 decades, imagine what our future beholds. On the other hand, as the competition grew further in the last decade, "the antitrust enterprise underwent an intense bout of soul-searching”.