'CONNECTOR - CompetitiOn law coNnects challeNges in digital markEts, intelleCtual properTy and air transpORt' is a 10-month project financially supported by the European Commission, DG Competition, via the Training of National Judges in EU Competition Law Programme, with the aim to provide national judges with the necessary knowledge and skills to apply and enforce competition rules and principles in the context of specific markets, highly driven by innovation, technological advancement and the flow of data.
The project is a natural extension of LIBRe Foundation’s previous efforts in organizing trainings for national judges on EU Competition Law topics. CONNECTOR benefits from the accumulated expertise and knowledge of LIBRe Foundation’s team and complements the activities carried out in previous projects and initiatives by extending further the interactive collaboration tools built within the framework of these projects, e.g. the online platform built within the CONSTANT project (11/2016 – 08/2017).
CONNECTOR’s strive is to provide judges with knowledge about the economic and technological characteristics of three separate markets – the market of online platforms, the digital content market and the airline industry. CONNECTOR groups these three seemingly disparate sectors in accordance with their commonalities, namely their underscored international nature, the high influence of innovation and rapid technological developments and the use of big data.
Particular account will be taken of several key factors for the research and assessment of the market position and behavior of undertakings in these sectors, including the business model underlying online platforms, zero-priced services and personal data valorization, the role of algorithms in dynamic pricing practices, the importance of intellectual property when assessing market competition, etc.
The main aim of the project is to extend the competition law enforcement expertise of judges in new areas where EU competition rules closely interacts with other domains of law such as consumer protection law, intellectual property law, data protection law, and air law. Thus, CONNECTOR will strengthen the capacity of the Bulgarian judiciary in the enforcement of EC competition rules regarding antitrust violations, abuses of dominant positions and the control of concentrations between undertakings in the new and advanced terms of the digital society.
In pursuit of this objective, CONNECTOR will conduct three educational events, relying on novel educational methods and an interactive educational process, encouraging the active participation of the audience. The project also envisages to create a healthy environment for establishment of professional relations between judges, which will enable them to share knowledge, experience, interpretative strategies and opinions on matters related to EU Competition Law.
For further news about the activities under CONNECTOR keep track of the CONSTANT Platform.
