The Competition Council (CC), together with the Polish and Lithuanian competition authorities and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will implement the European Union Technical Support Instrument “Competition in the digital sector: market research – Lithuania, Latvia, Poland” with the aim of promoting competitiveness in the digital markets of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The project was launched in Vilnius, Lithuania, where representatives of the OECD, the European Commission (EC), and the competition authorities involved in the project, presented the project’s objectives and upcoming activities and discussed opportunities for closer cooperation.
Welcoming the stakeholders at the launch event, Inese Druviete, Competition Council Member, noted that the project will enable the CC to gain a deeper understanding of the issues in the digital sector and ensure effective follow-up action, protecting consumers and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and their growth in the rapidly evolving digital economy.
“This project will provide an excellent opportunity to identify existing gaps and broaden our horizons to proactively adapt the regulatory framework. Strengthening of regulatory instruments will help to protect consumers and promote fair competition in the business environment. Cooperation with the EC, the OECD and our neighbours Lithuania and Poland is particularly valuable given our limited resources to implement large-scale projects independently,” said I. Druviete.
During project implementation, the OECD, with the assistance of the government institutions of three participating countries, will conduct a market study of online marketplaces and their ecosystems in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, determine the key actors in the market and their activities, identify potential competition problems and provide recommendations on how to address them. Training and workshops will be organised to strengthen the capacity of the institutions concerned.
It is anticipated that the project will help to develop rules to maintain the openness and competitiveness of the digital markets. At the European Union level, the Digital Markets Act applies to the world’s biggest internet platform operators, setting fair trading rules and helping to ensure competition, but does not apply to smaller economic units that only have market power in a particular region or country. The CC notes that the absence of a specific framework reduces the efficiency related to the monitoring of the competition principles as investigations performed by the competition authorities in the digital markets require extremely detailed knowledge of the market, as well as significant time and human resources.
The project is funded under the EU Technical Support Instrument programme and has a planned duration of 21 months.