Monopolies and Oligopolies, a peril for European Economies in the XXI century.

The dominance of neoliberal economic policies since the 1980s has led not only to the increase of income inequality, but also to a growing concentration of economic power in a handful of corporations in key areas of the 21st century economy, such as finance, logistics or technology, activities that have been clearly fueled by network strategies that fit perfectly with the way in which markets operate.

In a joint paper by Fundació Irla and Coppieters Foundation, Professor Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) aims to understand the extent and the main causes of the aforementioned concentration in the European economic region since the 1980s; and, on the other hand, to identify realistic measures to be applied in order to reach a better regulation of competition, able to prevent monopolies and oligopolies to emerge, and to curb and break them where they nevertheless happen to appear.

Among other measures, Arauzo Carod points out to:

• Strengthen the right to privacy of the user of digital services, so that he/she has greater control over which data he/she transfers to which companies; in exchange for what services; for what purposes; and for what period of time.
• Guarantee free and open access to data as far as possible – avoiding, as a matter of priority, any access to data that harms the right to privacy of citizens.
• Ensure the portability of each consumer’s data in a format that can be managed from different companies and computer systems.
• Promote the division of large corporations in those markets where there is an excessive degree of concentration, in order to reduce barriers to entry.
• Reformulate tax systems, in order to adapt them to the fact that much of the economy is embracing digitalization; so as to avoid a differentiation — increasignly unreasonable — between two completely differentiated tax regimes — the “traditional” and the “digital”.
• Harmonize those regulations that affect content-producing companies with those that affect digital platforms; particularly regarding controls and taxation.
• Implement greater fiscal harmonization at European level (and, if possible, global), in order to avoid the existence of fiscal islands without any kind of digital tax or with digital rates significantly below the average of the EU

Practicalities

When: 28 Janaury 2020 at 10:30
Where: online – youtube

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This conference is financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for the content of the event nor the opinions expressed by the participants.

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