G7 Enforcers Summit and publishing Compendium of approaches to improving competition in digital markets

November 29, 2021
Japan Fair Trade Commission
 

 In the Ministerial Declaration of the G7 Digital Technology Ministers' Meeting adopted on April 28, 2021, “Deepening Cooperation on Digital Competition" was included as one of the important interventions, and the UK Competition and Markets Authority (hereinafter referred to as “CMA”) was asked to convene a meeting of G7 competition authorities in 2021 to support the efforts on digital competition. In response, the CMA will host the Enforcers Summit in a hybrid format, in person (London, UK) and online, on November 29 and 30, 2021, which the heads of the G7 competition authorities^(*1) and those of the guest competition authorities,^(*2) including Chairman Furuya from the Japan Fair Trade Commission, will attend.
 At the Summit, the heads of the G7 and guest competition authorities will discuss issues in digital areas, including large digital platforms, app stores, online marketplaces, digital advertising, mobile ecosystem, cloud computing, algorithms, and so on. The areas with the possibility of collaboration among the G7 and guest competition authorities will be also considered.
(*1) The G7 competition authorities are as follows: Autoritá Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (Italy), Autorité de la Concurrence (France), Bundeskartellamt (Germany), Competition Bureau (Canada), CMA (United Kingdom), Department of Justice (United States of America), Directorate General for Competition (European Commission), U.S. Federal Trade Commission (United States of America) and Japan Fair Trade Commission (Japan).
(*2) The guest competition authorities are as follows: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (Australia), Competition Commission of India (India), Korea Fair Trade Commission (South Korea) and Competition Commission South Africa (South Africa); these are the competition authorities of Australia, India, Korea and South Africa, all of which were invited as guest countries to this year’s G7.
 
 In addition, the G7 and guest competition authorities jointly published the compendium of approaches to improving competition in the digital markets(attached). This compendium outlines works of the competition authorities to address competition issues in the digital markets and focuses on common approaches, etc.
 The compendium includes, for instance, the following approaches of the G7 and guest competition authorities:
(1) opening investigations and studies, or bringing enforcement actions;
(2) developing specialist teams staffed with technical experts;
(3) considering or introducing legislative reforms to bolster enforcement tools or introduce new regulatory regimes; and
(4) ensuring regulatory cooperation domestically and internationally.

*It should be noted that this announcement is a tentative translation.
  Please refer to the original text written in Japanese for more details.