Digital Era Competition BRICS Report

Abstract

The report engages with one of the most crucial questions of our time, the public governance of the digital economy, in particular focusing on the new forms of competitive interaction in the era of digital capitalism. New questions emerge out of the transition from the old to the new economy, which require ‘outside of the box thinking’ in order to inform policymakers and help to broaden the current narratives. Competition authorities have recently engaged in significant preparatory work, often in partnership with academics, in order to reflect on the challenges set by the digital economy to modern competition enforcement. There have been a number of insightful reports already published the last few months and more work in the making. None of these reports has nevertheless so far engaged with the rapidly developing digital economy of emerging and developing jurisdictions, and in particular the BRICS, which represent a third of the world economy and a significant part of the global digital economy. The report fills this gap. The report also provides a holistic perspective on the regulation of competition in the digital economy, inspired by the principles of polycentric competition law and engages in an in-depth analysis of the digital economy by a large interdisciplinary team coming from different BRICS partner academic institutions, and coordinated by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre at HSE National Research University.