Modern antitrust and competition law relies extensively on the firm as defined by Ronald Coase: a hierarchy reducing transaction costs thanks to vertical control, where such control defines the firm's boundaries. Meanwhile, the governance of public permissionless blockchains is horizontal....

Western legal systems have historically helped establish trust between parties and reduce transactional uncertainty by providing recourse to legal procedures. Nonetheless, establishing trust still imposes significant transactional costs and blockchain may reduce them to a smaller level. In the...

An interview of Prof. Michal Gal by Dr. Thibault Schrepel on the subject of algorithms and competition law. The interview covers subjects such as how algorithms affect competition; cases involving algorithms; the potential benefits brought about by algorithms to consumers; the unique...

In our submission, we argue that competition policy in the digital economy should be based on sound, theoretical underpinnings and rigorous, evidence-based analysis, best encapsulated in the “law and economics” approach. Despite many expressed fears to the contrary, digital markets are not...

Contents: Preface -- Introduction: The decentralization -- Part 1 a common ambition -- 1. Blockchain: From ideology to implementation -- 2. Blockchain's toolbox -- 3. Blockchain and darwin -- 4. Decentralization? -- 5. Comes antitrust: The paradox -- Part 2 best frenemies? -- 6. The theory of...

In this article, the authors show that blockchain can help in reaching the goals of antitrust law in situations where the rule of law does not (fully) apply. They detail what needs to be done to this end, from both a technical and legal standpoint

Computational antitrust is a new domain of legal informatics which seeks to develop computational methods for the automation of antitrust procedures and the improvement of antitrust analysis. The present article first introduces it, then explores how agencies, policymakers, and market...

Tech giants are commonly referred to as ‘platforms’ in our everyday language and academic circles. Some refer to ‘the platform economy’, or the ‘platformization of the Web’. But our legal language requires more nuance as putting all these companies in the same basket has significant...

Antitrust law is undergoing a transformation that is detrimental to the interest of the general public. “Romantics” are taking over antitrust law—a fact evinced by recent public outreach instruments. This transformation is grounded in populist rhetoric that pits the “elites” (often,...

Computational antitrust promises not only to help antitrust agencies preside over increasingly complex and dynamic markets, but also to provide companies with the tools to assess and enforce compliance with antitrust laws. If research in the space has been primarily dedicated to supporting...