The Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Future of Competition Law Enforcement
Andreas von Bonin, Sharon Malhi · Journal of European Competition Law & Practice · 2020
In a future in which the evidential underpinnings for initiating competition law investigations could begin to shift towards a reliance upon the use of artificial intelligence, this paper outlines some of the key opportunities and risks for businesses and regulators. In October 2017, the European Commission (the Commission) published a consultancy tender seeking advice on how artificial intelligence (AI) could improve its processes of evidence management, legal drafting and—as is the focus of this paper—its market intelligence gathering.1 More recently, in its AI White Paper of February 2020, the Commission again expressed an intention to understand how AI can equip ‘law enforcement authorities with appropriate tools’.2 The utility of AI in the processing of large amounts of data and pattern recognition—particularly against the backdrop of a rapidly digitalising European economy—offers considerable opportunities for the future of European competition law enforcement. One only needs to look at the duration of, and scale of evidence gathered in, the Commission’s Google investigations to understand the potentially significant benefits to the Commission of future proofing its enforcement powers with AI-powered analytical tools.3