EU Law Enforcement – Central point of information, research and discussion

Edward Elgar Research Handbook on the Enforcement of EU Law

The EU body of law counts more than 100,000 pieces of legislation and some argue that the legislative activity of the EU has been declining. However, are these laws being followed and do they bring the expected results? To answer these questions, it is important to investigate relevant implementation processes.

Enforcement is a process of monitoring compliance with laws, investigating possible violations and responding to the proven violations via corrections and sanctions. Upon an invitation from Edward Elgar publishing, I have organised a research handbook on the enforcement of EU law, which was written by 50 experts from relevant fields. This blog post gives a succinct overview of the main findings of this book, which has aimed to present the state-of-the-art in research and practice and outline directions for future research and policy. The book shows an evolution of the concept of enforcement of EU law and observes interesting trends. Based on a comparative methodology, it argues for an increasing importance of the preventive function of enforcement and shows an insightful variety of approaches that can be taken in this regard. Finally, the book discusses the question of success of enforcement by pinpointing the factors that could promote or hinder it.

The evolution of EU portability law and its drawbacks

With the prominent role of digital platforms nowadays, switching has become a habit common to many users. A provider can come out of fashion very easily, as users migrate from one service to another in constant search for the best digital service and following the trend. Also “network effects” contributed to the wide spreading of the phenomenon. Against this backdrop, the concept of “portability” has first been articulated as a user right in Article 20 GDPR. This blogpost will portray the different roles acquired by the concept of “portability” throughout the years and spot its intricate relationship with digital platform law and regulation.

Mitigating Antitrust Risks in Due Diligence between Competitors

In the realm of mergers & acquisitions (“M&A”) transactions, corporations almost always undergo due diligence, wherein the buyer conducts a thorough investigation and evaluation of the target company before entering into a transaction. In the context of due diligence operations, antitrust challenges may arise in specific situations, such as when the involved parties are direct competitors. The purpose of this post is to illustrate the instances when antitrust risks emerge during due diligence concerning M&A operations between competitors and to propose suggestions mitigating these risks.

Do crises affect enforcement of EU Law?

In 2018, EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker stated that the EU “had been sleepwalking from one crisis to another without waking up.” These crises have no doubt had a range of detrimental effects on the EU, and I argue that crises make it harder for the Commission to enforce EU law. Why? Crises require resources, including time. Time is a fixed and finite resource, and if the Commission is spending time on a crisis, there is less time for enforcement. However, crises do not inevitably lead to lax enforcement. Other actors, including the European Parliament and EU citizens can help overcome the constraints of time.

[REPOST] EPPO – First ruling of the ECJ: a Solomon’s judgement on cross-border investigations

This month, we have the pleasure of re-posting a contribution by Clémence van Muylder, Senior Associate at Loyens&Loeff, Brussels. Have a pleasant read!

In its Grand Chamber judgment of 21 December 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union rendered its very first decision on the functioning of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The decision provides valuable guidance on the conditions for cross-border acquisition of evidence by the EPPO.

Tweede druk van het boek “De Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming in Europees en Nederlands perspectief”

Begin april verscheen de tweede druk van het boek “De Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming in Europees en Nederlands perspectief”. Het is een bijgewerkte versie van de eerste druk die verscheen rond de tijd dat de Algemene verordening gegevensbescherming (de “AVG”, ook wel bekend onder de Engelse afkorting: “GDPR”) van toepassing werd.

User Influencing and a Pragmatic Role for Competition Authorities

Over the past decade, user influencing practices have gained prominence in academic and digital policy debates in Europe. These practices include dark patterns, dark nudges, sludge, and highly personalised processes such as hypernudging. In essence, they rely on manipulating users’ cognitive and environmental constraints to steer their behaviour in a predictable manner. Growing empirical evidence of harms have triggered regulatory responses in the recent Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, Artificial Intelligence Act, and Data Act. In addition, the enforcement guidance documents were updated to sharpen the application of EU data protection and consumer laws to capture these practices. In this blog post, I focus on European competition law as an alternative instrument that has so far been largely overlooked in user influencing debates. As user influencing may lead to distortion of competition and consumer harm, competition authorities should take a more active, yet pragmatic, role in addressing these challenges.

Google – a natural monopoly?

I. Introduction

In the vast landscape of technology, Google stands out as a global giant, operating the world’s largest search engine, Google Search. The sheer influence and market power of this tech behemoth has sparked debates over whether Google qualifies as a natural monopoly, which would mean that it could be subjected to ex-ante, utility-like regulation combined with separation. This contribution delves into the ongoing discourse surrounding Google’s classification as a natural monopoly, analyzing contrasting perspectives, exploring potential regulatory approaches, and analyzing their impact on enforcement. The argument built below leans on an in-depth literature review to offer insights into the complex realm of regulating a tech giant like Google. Finally, for its analysis, this contribution focusses on Google Search as it is Google’s main service and the debate on the classification of Google as a natural monopoly has been related to this service specifically.

Preparing the European Union for a Geoengineering Future: Exploring the Interplay of EU and International Law in Geoengineering

Introduction

Geo-Engineering (GE) is an attempt to intervene in the Earth´s climate system. It refers to “the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system to counteract man-made climate change”. Solar Radiation Management (henceforth GE), is to mitigate global warming by reducing solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface through techniques such as stratospheric aerosol injection, aiming to cool the planet by reflecting a portion of incoming sunlight. This could have significant levels of risk concerning its impact on the global climate system, natural ecosystems, weather patterns, biodiversity and human rights, therefore having heterogenous externalities. So far, only the legally binding London Convention / London Protocol (LC/LP) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) regulates the fertilization of oceans to promote CO₂-binding algae, another type of GE. Other regulation on GE is lacking. In June 2023 the European Commission (EC) published their intention to “support international efforts to comprehensively assess the risks and uncertainties of such climate interventions and promote discussions on a potential international framework for their governance, including research into related aspects”.

This blogpost highlights the EU´s potential leading role in the evolving landscape around GE regulation and gives recommendations how the EU can leverage existing mechanisms to address the complexities possible GE regulation entails.