Doubts about how competition law should apply to e-commerce

The consequences of infringing competition law are becoming more serious, while there is increasing awareness of the possibility of claiming damages for such infringements.

The big competition law issue at EU level relates to how legislation should be applied to the digital world, says Patricia Liñan, partner at Bird & Bird. “The Google case is a prime example, where the EU Commission has imposed a record fine of more than €2 billion, and there is also a final report from the commission on the application of competition rules to e-commerce and how that will work,” she adds.