Publications: Lilla Nóra Kiss

South Korea faces a strategic decision: Address persistent trade asymmetries, or risk straining its long-standing alliance with the United States and lose autonomy vis-à-vis China. What’s needed is a genuine reset—one grounded in open trade and closer coordination with Washington to counter mercantilist practices.

While the Interim Report of the Market Review on the Digital Economy Ecosystem under the Competition Act 2010 reflects a valuable step toward understanding market trends, it does not present clear evidence of systemic market failure that would warrant prescriptive regulatory intervention.

Rather than adopt the European Union’s model for regulating competition, policymakers considering how to govern digital markets should carefully evaluate whether digital antitrust regulation is justified and consider whether concerns about anticompetitive behavior can be addressed with less intrusive and more cost-effective tools.

While the DMA may be motivated by Europe’s commitment to its long-held ordoliberal model of competition policy, its disproportionate effects on U.S. firms are intentional.

The European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass rightly identifies Europe’s economic and innovation challenges but proposes misguided solutions.

By deciding not to pursue digital competition regulation, Australia can avoid the problems that are already materializing as a result of ex-ante regimes like the EU’s DMA.

Thailand’s emerging digital markets are driven by innovation, growth, and the spirit of entrepreneurship. Hastily adopting the PEA as proposed risks introducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, fostering regulatory capture, and stifling innovation without clear evidence of market failure.

Policymakers in South Korea are weighing a raft of digital market provisions inspired by the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Their goal is to rein in allegedly anticompetitive practices by Big Tech firms. But the proposed interventions are unwarranted and risk harming innovation, straining relations with the United States during uncertain times, and opening the door to China.

The Draghi Report is a monumental but imperfect step in the right direction to correct Europe’s failing competition policy and better drive European innovation and productivity growth.

The SSCP’s broad per se prohibitions and limited cybersecurity exemption are likely to chill the very innovative behavior that is key to allowing Japan’s smartphone markets to thrive, and risk targeting a leading firm of one of its closest allies.