Faculdade de Direito | Sala EAA003 | Edifício Américo Amorim / Américo Amorim Building
The Conference “Competition law challenges in a digital and sustainable market” aims to promote dialogue and scientific exchange on the topics of competition law in the context of the digital market and sustainability. The Conference is taking place on May 14th, 2024, at 9:00 am, in the classroom EAA003, the date that marks the 8th anniversary of the Market and Competition Law Review, at Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Porto.
The rise of the digital economy, technology, along with the climate emergency have had a significant impact on society and the economy, creating new markets and transforming existing ones. This is reflected in competition law and policy, presenting a multifaceted challenges in the enforcement and policy fields.
On the one hand, sustainability and, in particular, climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the century. Although competition can support and incentivize sustainable development, it can also risk hindering sustainable and pro-competitive business combinations and practices, pushing companies to refrain from collaborating on sustainable initiatives by fear of infringing antitrust rules.
On the other hand, technology has created rapidly evolving markets, leaving competition authorities with the need to address new forms of misconduct and examine markets whose precise boundaries are unclear. At the same time, the indicators of growing market power of digital platforms and “big tech” companies have led to the demand for new competition policy tools and the more active use of existing ones.
These contemporary dynamics and challenges posed by digital evolution and sustainability are of the uppermost importance for competition law policymakers, enforcers, and practitioners in general. This conference will address some of these issues, focusing on the interaction between competition law (from State aid, merger control and anticompetitive agreements to abuse of dominance) and sustainability, as well as digital market challenges, namely cloud infrastructures and the DMA.
