Contours of an effective competition policy: Promoting Europe ‘as a’ digital champion (and ‘not’ European champions)

The rise of China Inc. and the digitalization of even the most traditional, brick and mortar structures of the economy, has led many to persuasively argue that the EU competition policy is ‘obsolete’ and needs a re-think. In this note, I highlight the underlying factors that
substantiate or question these concerns and explore how these two challenges that emerged with remarkable simultaneity can be managed within the existing legal framework, and wherever required, can be effectively handled with suitable policy reforms. A reformed policy approach calls for a more ‘teological’ approach, identifying EU law as an integrated whole, with competition policy in general, and merger control in particular, being a key instrument to achieve the larger policy objective of establishing an ‘internal market’ and work for towards the development of an effective and well-functioning internal market in the European Union.