We are thrilled to present the eighteenth issue of BASEAK CORE Papers article series!
The effects generated by the much-awaited decision of the EU General Court in Google (Shopping) continues to reverberate around the antitrust world. Carrying profound implications for competition law enforcement in digital markets, the case also doubles as a guidepost for national competition authorities scrambling to tame the technology giants.
Google (Shopping) is the first decision addressing the novel concept of self-preferencing at the EU level. As such, it is rich in insights related to some of the most contentious areas of case law, including the essential facilities doctrine, the indispensability criterion in refusals to deal, the establishment of anticompetitive effects, and the role of applicable regulations in competition assessments. Furthermore, the case also touches upon controversial issues of platform governance, intra-platform discrimination, and anticompetitive intent – all gathered under the umbrella of a context-specific, "all-things-considered" evaluation of the conduct at issue.
The present BASEAK CORE Paper critically examines these debates with the aim to place the judgment in the wider scope of EU competition jurisprudence. The authors, Of Counsel Baris Yüksel and Selçukhan Ünekbas, develop five concluding remarks to populate the last chapter, in which the discussion not only views the ruling within the overall European framework, but it also develops lessons for practitioners in Turkey, as well.
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