Competition and consumer policy in digital markets - Presentation by Inge Graef

When Competition Meets Consumer Protection: An Institutional Perspective

Relationship between competition and consumer law

• Protection of consumer sovereignty: –availability of a range of options to choose from – competition law

–ability of consumers to choose effectively among these options –consumer law

• This distinction becomes blurred in case of practices that manipulate consumers’ decision-making process

Different levels of more integrated enforcement

• Joint priority

setting

• Joint policymaking

• Joint cases

Existing initiatives and their limits

• EU coordination networks within legal regimes: Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, European Competition Network, European Board for Digital Services, European Artificial Intelligence Board, European Data Innovation Board, and high-level group for the Digital Markets Act

• National coordination networks across legal regimes: UK Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, Dutch Digital Regulation Cooperation Platform, German Digital Cluster Bonn, Irish Digital Regulators Group, French national coordination network for digital services

Next boundaries

• Beyond maximizing synergies and minimizing tensions, consider gaps especially in terms of effective remedies:

– Attitude of users – consumer empowerment has its limits

– Advancements in AI and data science – machine unlearning as restorative remedy

• Extent of compliance and enforcement are no longer the only success metrics:

– Narratives by addressees of legislation that it hinders innovation and user-friendliness

– Need for (joint) advocacy to explain long-term goals of legislation to citizens

• Graef, I. (2021). Consumer sovereignty and competition law: From personalization to diversity. Common Market Law Review, 58(2), p. 471504, available here.

• Graef, I. (2025). Shaping remedies at the interface of EU competition and data protection law: Synergies, tensions and gaps. In M. Ioannidou & D. Mantzari (Eds.), Research handbook on data, privacy and competition law (p. 340-354), Edward Elgar, available here.

• Graef, I., Clifford, D., & Valcke, P. (2018). Fairness and enforcement: Bridging competition, data protection, and consumer law. International Data Privacy Law, 8(3), p. 200-223, available here.

• Contact: i.graef@tilburguniversity.edu