CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Khundadze, Tekla |
|---|---|
| Title | Control of Abuse of Dominance in the Digital Markets: Steps to be Taken by Georgia |
| Summary | Rapidly evolving digital markets have created challenges for competition law across the world. Among them is the challenge to monitor abuse of dominance in digital markets through existing tools, which have been ineffective in tackling such abuses by digital giants. This is especially true in connection with developing countries that are in the process of implementing well-recognized standards of competition law and developing practices by their young competition authorities. Georgia, as a post-soviet country, is one of those jurisdictions that is relatively new to regulating competition in its market. The major reform in Georgian competition law took place in 2020, making domestic law compliant with EU regulations. However, despite the substantial approximation of national competition law with the one of the EU, neither Georgian competition law nor the practice of the local competition authority specifically addresses unfair competition in the digital markets. The purpose of my thesis is to examine how Georgia should approach controlling abuse of dominance in digital markets, as well as how it should implement the respective EU competition law in its domestic legislation. The thesis illustrates that the digital markets in Georgia are not developed since the Georgian population lacks digital literacy while local businesses lack awareness and technical skills to digitalize their commerce. However, policy documents of Georgian authorities, as well as cooperation between the EU and Georgian government and respective projects implemented, show that one of the main goals of Georgia is the development of a digital economy, promoting e-commerce in Georgia by raising awareness among the population as well as local businesses and providing technical support for the digitalization of commerce. On the other hand, research shows that giant tech companies, such as Google and Facebook dominate Georgian markets while Amazon holds a considerable market share in the Georgian e-commerce market, and they can potentially engage in anticompetitive conduct in Georgian digital markets. In order to address the research question, the thesis compares Georgian and EU competition law to identify gaps in Georgian law in relation to addressing abuse of dominance in digital markets. Lastly, the thesis discusses how, Georgia, as a developing country, should proceed with controlling the abuse of dominance by digital players. Specifically, it suggests steps that Georgia should take in connection with abuse of dominance in digital markets and discusses whether, and to what extent, it should implement the EU Digital Markets Act into its national legislation. |
| Supervisor | Schmidt-Kessen, Maria José |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/khundadze_tekla.pdf |
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