Sustainable & Digital Competition on the Merits: A Comparative and Inter-disciplinary Perspective

Conference Details

Date: 22 June 2023

Time: 09:00

Duration: 2 days

Location: Maastricht, Netherlands

Cost: Free

Organiser: Maastricht University

Conference Website

Conference Description

Digitalization and sustainability have been identified as a top priority in the EU’s Green Deal to ensure a truly competitive and sustainable digital single market. This strategy not only feeds into the competitiveness of the EU, but it will also ensure a diverse set of market players in the internal market. This is also expected to have a positive spill-over effect to address the ever emerging geopolitical challenges. While on the one hand, digitalization brings in a new set of challenges, such as the black box algorithms and the rise of supra-dominant global players, such as Google and Amazon; then on the other, it also enhances access to information, and offers users a platform to express their opinion.

Different interests can be balanced and attained only in a freely functioning internal market, where firms compete on the merits, and any anti-competitive effects are addressed in a timely manner. Considering the role of innovation to facilitate a sustainable and digital future, this conference assesses the role of innovation laws, namely, IP and competition laws, to facilitate EU’s green and digital transition.

In light of the multi-disciplinary nature of the debate, the issue is addressed from a comparative and cross-disciplinary perspective.