Publication alert: EU competition law enforcement and artificial intelligence

In the forthcoming issue of European Papers, Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel and Jerome De Cooman dive deep in the use of AI by competition authorities as enforcement tools.

In his contribution, Pieter explains that the right to avoid self-incrimination forms part of the fundamental rights of the defence accompanying public enforcement of EU competition law. He highlights, however, that open questions relating to its scope constrain its practical use and argues that they also have a direct and significant impact on the ability for EU and Member States competition authorities to introduce AI-backed enforcement tools.

Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel, "The Right to Avoid Self-incrimination: Yet Another Elephant in the Automated Competition law Enforcement Room?
" (2024) 9(3) European Papers 978-997.

In the same vein, Jerome explores the impact of AI-driven cartel screening on procedural fairness. Although the use of algorithms increases procedural fairness by removing noise and cognitive biases from the decision-making process, the overall impact on procedural fairness remains far from clear given that the introduction of AI systems in public administration might perniciously generates new type of biases or harmful behaviours.

Jerome De Cooman, "Whose Bias is it, Anyway? The Need for a Four-Eyes Principle in AI-Driven Competion Law Proceedings" (2024) 9(3) European Papers 998-1016.