Episode 30- Michal Gal - The Limits of Competition Law: Lessons for the future

Episode 30- Michal Gal - The Limits of Competition Law: Lessons for the future

In this episode, recorded in person at the SCiDA Conference 2026, Anush Ganesh sits down with Professor Michal Gal, Professor of Law at the University of Haifa and one of the world's foremost competition law scholars, as well as ASCOLA President between 2016 and 2023, to discuss her decades of research on competition law, algorithms, and digital markets. They explore how the "winner takes all" dynamic has evolved, drawing on her most recent work on the topic with Raz Agranat, before turning to her co-authored research with Jorge Padilla on how algorithms reshape competition enforcement. Michal then reflects on her influential work with Dan Rubinfeld and Oshrit Aviv on zero-price markets and the most pressing concerns in data markets today. The conversation revisits her prescient article on algorithmic consumers, which she described at the SCiDA Conference 2026 as more relevant than ever, before closing by asking whether radical restorative remedies have a role in the current enforcement landscape, with reference to her paper co-authored with Nicholas Petit.

Episode 29- Julian Nowag - Sustainability, Algorithmic Predation, and Global Antitrust Expertise

In this episode, Anush Ganesh and Kena Zheng are joined by Dr Julian Nowag, Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong and Lund University, Managing Editor of the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, and Associate at the Oxford Centre for Competition Law and Policy. Julian is one of the most versatile scholars working in competition law today, with major contributions spanning sustainability, digital markets, and artificial intelligence. His monograph Global Antitrust and Sustainability (OUP, 2025) maps how competition authorities around the world engage with sustainability as a regulatory objective across economics, law, and enforcement. His co-authored article with Thomas Cheng, Algorithmic Predation and Exclusion, won a Concurrences Antitrust Writing Award in 2023 and has reshaped how scholars and practitioners think about data-driven exclusionary strategies. The conversation covers the contested place of sustainability in competition analysis, whether classical predatory pricing doctrine can handle the precision and scale that algorithmic targeting enables, and how the DMA, DMCCA, and Section 19a GWB interact with the broader trajectory of the field.

Episode 28- SCiDA Conference Expert Panel on DMCCA and Section 19a GWB - Magali Eben, Konstantina Bania, Jan-Frederick Göhsl and Björn Christian Becker

In this episode, recorded on 27 May 2026 at the SCiDA Conference in Düsseldorf, Anush Ganesh and Sarah Hinck co-chair a plenary panel exploring the UK's Strategic Market Status regime under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act and Germany's Section 19a GWB. Magali Eben (University of Glasgow; Vice-President, ASCOLA) and Konstantina Bania (Brunel University; Geradin Partners) examine the CMA's early moves under the DMCCA, from the Google and Apple SMS designations to the newly launched Microsoft investigation, and ask whether the CMA is building a coherent enforcement strategy or risking fragmentation across its growing toolkit. Bjorn Christian Becker (Humboldt University of Berlin) and Jan-Frederick Gohsl (University of Munster) then take a deep dive into the regulatory architecture and recent case law under Section 19a, including the Bundeskartellamt's Amazon decision. The panel discussed how the bespoke, discretion-heavy design of the DMCCA and Section 19a compares with the DMA's prescriptive model, and whether that flexibility is a regulatory strength or a source of legal uncertainty. The discussion moves also to the strikingly different approaches to private enforcement: the UK's rapidly expanding collective proceedings docket against digital platforms running alongside public DMCCA enforcement, set against Germany's deliberate restriction of private Section 19a claims to cases preceded by a Bundeskartellamt prohibition decision. The panel also engages on whether either regime is equipped to address competition challenges raised by AI, foundation models, and AI-powered services, or whether entirely new legislative thinking is needed.

Episode 27- Liana Japaridze and Ece Ban - Brussels effect in action: Competition Law in Digital Markets from the Caucasus and Türkiye

In this episode, Anush Ganesh and Kena Zheng are joined by Dr Liana Japaridze (Lecturer in Competition Law, University of Glasgow) and Dr Ece Ban (DPhil, University of Oxford) to explore how competition law travels across borders and adapts to the challenges of digital markets. Liana discusses her pioneering work on legal transplants of competition frameworks from the EU and the US into the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, including the creation of the first Georgian-language textbook on competition law. Ece draws on her experience as a qualified lawyer at the Istanbul Bar to examine the Turkish Competition Authority's approach to platform dominance, data-driven conduct, and algorithmic practices, and whether a DMA-inspired conversation is taking shape in Türkiye. She also presents her research on how regulation functions as an input in abuse analysis under Article 102 TFEU, proposing a "reality check" framework for managing the growing overlap between competition law, the DMA, and the GDPR. The conversation moves from the maturity of digital markets in the Caucasus and Türkiye to the broader question of whether Article 102 will stagnate in the shadow of the DMA or continue to evolve alongside it, with particular attention to jurisdictions that must rely on abuse of dominance provisions alone.

Episode 26 - Xingyu Yan- Bridging Brussels and Beijing: Interoperability, Institutional Design, and Digital Markets Regulation

In this episode, Anush and Kena are joined by Dr Xingyu Yan, Assistant Professor at Xiamen University School of Law and recipient of the ASCOLA Best Paper Award in 2021 for his work "Towards a More Competitive Mobile Payment Industry: Standardization and Beyond." Xingyu's research bridges European and Chinese competition law, offering a genuinely comparative perspective on how different legal systems respond to the challenges posed by digital platforms. The conversation covers Xingyu's work on interoperability mandates under Article 7 of the Digital Markets Act, where he and Yang Feng propose an "ecosystems competition" framework drawing on the Chinese experience with platforms like WeChat. We also discuss his joint work with Hans Vedder on operationalising the special responsibility of dominant undertakings under Article 102 TFEU through a minimum efficient scale test, and the central arguments of his recent book, "Competition Law in China and the EU: Institutional Dynamics and Theories of Harm," which examines how the contrasting institutional structures of the EU and Chinese enforcement regimes shape the development of theories of harm in practice. The episode closes with a broader discussion of whether ex ante regulation through instruments like the DMA represents a necessary evolution or risks undermining traditional ex post competition law enforcement.