KGI’s work on competition regulation and enforcement in digital markets synthesizes leading research, bridging independent research with policymaking across various jurisdictions. We examine novel regulatory and enforcement tools and strategies, with a focus on understanding which approaches effectively promote competition.
Hardly a day goes by without competition regulation or enforcement involving tech companies appearing in news headlines around the world. From app stores and browsers to social networking, advertising, and AI-powered consumer services, dominant platforms shape how billions of people around the world access information.
KGI works to synthesize leading research on digital markets competition, bridging independent research with policymaking across various jurisdictions.
KGI’s marquee annual gathering, the Digital Competition Conference, brings together researchers, policymakers, regulators, litigators, and industry leaders for evidence-based dialogue on the most pressing competition issues in technology markets. Topics range from remedies in search and browsers to competition challenges in app stores, social networking, connected devices, and AI-powered consumer services. The conference serves as a unique venue in Washington where research and policy experts meet to unpack national, transatlantic, and global tech competition developments.
In collaboration with the Institute for Technology Law & Policy (Tech Institute), KGI is spearheading a research project at the intersection of law and economics to examine how competition authorities are addressing the challenges of regulating digital markets.
From the United States to the European Union to other jurisdictions, competition policy has a long list of challenges when attempting to change digital market realities. This has led to competition authorities developing novel strategies and tools for enforcement, including the enactment of stricter legal obligations, extensive market studies, establishing specialized internal units, and hiring staff with expertise in non-traditional fields for competition authorities. Using legal research alongside economic analysis, this project aims to map these different approaches and assess their impact on competition dynamics in the digital economy.
Join us in-person or virtually as Jonathan Sallet, lead litigator for the State Plaintiffs in the landmark US v. Google search antitrust case, breaks down the trial and remedies issued by the court.
In-person & Virtual
Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy Auditorium
125 E St. NW, Washington, DC
12:30pm ET
View this event
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On September 2, US District Court Judge Amit Mehta issued an opinion that many in the tech industry had been waiting on for more than 15 years: a ruling about how to rectify Google’s maintenance of its illegal monopoly in online search. The most consequential aspect of the opinion is that the remedies will not meaningfully address the conduct at the center of the case: Google paying distributors like Apple, Samsung, and Mozilla tens of billions of dollars per year to lock in Google Search as the default on nearly every mobile phone and across much of the desktop browser market.
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The UK Competition and Markets Authority has provisionally designated Google as having Strategic Market Status – a step toward curbing the company’s dominance in online search. The Knight-Georgetown Institute finds evidence to support this designation and urges the UK to prioritize stronger interventions that address key barriers to entry in the search market.
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The European Commission’s new guidelines to protect minors online mark a step forward in online child safety, offering recommendations for how platforms are designed, including limits on manipulative design techniques, defaults to maximize protection, more agency for children, and regular risk reviews.
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Robust and comprehensive remedies in the US government’s Google search antitrust case would help prevent Google from leveraging its monopoly power in search to dominate the emerging market for generative AI products.
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A new report by Ofcom, the UK’s communication services regulator, underscores the challenges researchers face in accessing platform data and proposes a roadmap to improve researcher’s access to data to support online safety.
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A new legislative toolkit from the Knight-Georgetown Institute equips lawmakers with modular components to support the development of legislation that encourages algorithmic feeds that put people first.
