E-Commerce & Competition Law - What’s New?

Introduction

E-commerce is a fast-developing area with growing importance to the business community. The pandemic has only served to accelerate the growth of this method of distribution. Not surprisingly, therefore, both the EU Commission and national competition regulators like the CMA have already signalled that competition law scrutiny of the online world is a priority for them.

There has recently been an explosion of developments in relation to geo-blocking, pricing restrictions, most favoured nation clauses, access to market platforms, use of pricing algorithms and information exchange, which is creating a new framework of what is acceptable and what isn’t when trading online.

Online platforms are increasingly the gate keepers to important ecommerce eco systems. We review how competition regulators are regulating their market power through competition enforcement action.

This webinar will provide an understanding of the competition law online framework to manage your company’s or your clients’ competition law risks and to maximise the success of online strategies.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Aftermath of the EU Commission's e-commerce inquiry: A review of Commission’s priorities for regulating online behaviour
• The increased role in selective distribution in ecommerce distribution strategies
• Proposed new EU Vertical Agreements Block Exemption and what it means for ecommerce
• Restrictions to online selling and a review of the latest cases
• Territorial/geo-blocking
• Online pricing restrictions
• How competition law is dealing with algorithms and AI functionality
• Access to online marketplaces and price comparison sites
• Other restrictions to online selling
• Most favoured nation clauses

This webinar was recorded on 18th May 2022