#11 Inside the EU's Courtroom Playbook on Competition w/ Fernando Castillo de la Torre

In this episode, we explore the evolving landscape of competition law, particularly in the context of digital markets. Fernando Castillo de la Torre, Director in the European Commission's Legal Service, shares insights from his extensive experience in competition law and discusses the implications of recent regulatory changes, including the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). The conversation delves into the differences between traditional competition law and the new frameworks designed to address the unique challenges posed by digital platforms. If you'd like to learn more about Fernando, find his LinkedIn profile (where you'll find his interesting thoughts on legal standards) here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-castillo-de-la-torre-502aa617b/. All opinions expressed by Fernando on the episode are his own and in no way represent those of the European Commission. Throughout the episode, we mentioned a few landmark cases in the sphere of digital sphere, find them linked here (if you want to jump ahead to them):- 03:40, Microsoft case before the European Commission from the early 2000s: https://competition-cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/AT.37792.- 04:33, The European Commission's decision sanctioning Google for different types of conduct: 1) in 2017, the Google Shopping case: https://competition-cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/AT.39740; 2) in 2018, the Google Android case: https://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/dec_docs/40099/40099_9993_3.pdf; and 3) in 2019, the Google AdSense case: https://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/dec_docs/40411/40411_1619_11.pdf. - 04:37, The 2019 Expert report on competition policy for the digital markets: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/21dc175c-7b76-11e9-9f05-01aa75ed71a1/language-en.- 04:46, Guidelines on the assessment of horizontal (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52004XC0205(02) and vertical (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52008XC1018(03) mergers, as issued in the early 2000s.- 05:17, The European Commission fining Facebook for tying its Facebook Marketplace services: https://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases1/202513/AT_40684_10582539_13405_4.pdf.- 07:00, Preliminary reference issued by the Court of Justice on Android Auto: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=295687&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=5995951.- 07:39, The Bronner case discussed in Android Auto: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?language=en&num=C-7/97.- 08:12, The European Commission's prohibition of Booking/eTraveli merger: https://competition-cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/M.10615.- 09:49, The European Commission's fining of Apple for abusive practices in the music streaming market: https://competition-cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/AT.40437.- 12:49, The General Court's issuing of its ruling relating to ByteDance's designation decision: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=T-1077/23.- 13:48, The President of the General Court's order surrounding ByteDance's request for interim measures: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=282703&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=17409413.- 16:02, Opera's challenge before the General Court on the non-designation of Microsoft's Edge: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:C_202405640.To learn more about Dr. Alba Ribera Martínez and her research, we invite you to visit her website: https://www.albariberamartinez.com.She also writes, from time to time, in her newsletter, the DMA Agora, about the latest developments surrounding the European regulation: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7344021393451184128.