On the occasion of the opening of two calls for evidence on competition in the virtual worlds and generative artificial intelligence sectors, the European Commission announced on Tuesday 9 January that it was examining Microsoft’s investment in the company OpenAI and checking whether this investment “could be examined under the European Merger Control Regulation”.
Furthermore, by opening these two consultations, the Commission wishes to gain a better understanding of the level of competition in these sectors (barriers to entry or growth, drivers of competition, main players, etc.) and the way in which European competition law could contribute to maintaining a competitive structure for these emerging markets.
The Commission also announced that it had sent requests for information to several major players in the digital sector.
The institution also wants to study the impact of some of the agreements that have been reached between the major players in the digital market and the developers and suppliers of generative artificial intelligence on market dynamics.
The call is open until 11 March. The Commission has announced that it may organise a workshop in the second quarter of 2024.
Ensuring fair competition in emerging digital sectors was one of the requests made by MEPs when they adopted the report by Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French) on European competition policy (see EUROPE 13278/27).
Link to both calls: https://aeur.eu/f/aar (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)