On 4 October 2024, the Italian Competition Authority (“AGCM”) hosted the G7 competition authorities and policymakers’ summit in Rome to discuss “competition concerns raised by the rapid and widespread development and deployment of technologies based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Generative AI (GenAI) foundation models and algorithms”.

Participants to the summit included antitrust and government delegations from the seven member countries of the group (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom, United States) plus that of the European Commission.

Competition concerns related to AI

During the summit, the G7 competition authorities identified the following competition-related concerns that may be raised by AI:

• Concentrated control over crucial AI inputs.
• Dominant tech players leveraging their power through anti-competitive self-preferencing, tying, bundling, or other practices.
• Big tech players extending market power to adjacent AI markets.
• Complex partnerships and arrangements among large digital market incumbents and AI firms that may escape antitrust enforcers’ merger scrutiny.
• Use of AI and algorithms to facilitate collusion between companies through exchange of sensitive information and price-surveillance practices.

General guiding principles

With a view to addressing the above-identified competition concerns related to AI development and deployment, G7 competition authorities committed to ensure the following guiding principles are respected:

• Fair competition: AI systems should not be used to circumvent competition in the market (e.g., by way of colluding between competitive firms).
• Fair access and opportunity (especially when it comes to key inputs that are necessary to develop AI systems).
• Choice (by means of granting, for example, public, freely accessible foundation models).
• Interoperability (to prevent lock-in effects and concentration of market power).
• Innovation (to support the development of new ideas and technologies).
• Transparency and accountability (ensuring that consumers trust AI because they are well-informed about its risks).

Competition authorities’ role in addressing AI-related threats and the importance of global cooperation efforts in enforcement and regulatory activities

Finally, the G7 competition authorities stressed the crucial role played by antitrust enforcers in ensuring the benefits of AI are realised in a fair and competitive landscape, which shall be achieved by:

• a timely competition enforcement to safeguard fair competition in digital markets;
• adaptive and forward-looking policies;
• enhanced understanding of AI-technologies to better target the monitoring of markets and anticipate potential risks; and
• continuous engagement in inter-institutional dialogue and knowledge sharing, not only between G7 competition authorities, but also policymakers and discussions in international fora (such as the International Competition Network, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations Trade and Development).

The G7 meeting has thus been the occasion to stress that AI risks can only be addressed by following complementary actions (both “ex-ante” and “ex-post”) that are fostered by constant global dialogue.  Such institutional cooperation should not only monitor the close interactions between competition and AI, but also take into account the threats that AI may bring to other closely linked areas of law (from copyright to consumer protection and privacy), bearing in mind that a competitive AI landscape may help reduce such related risks.

The official G7 summit communiqué is available at the following link: G7 2024 - Digital Competition Communiqué.pdf

If you need more information or further guidance in this area, please contact Federico Marini Balestra, Lucia Antonazzi and Chiara Horgan.

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