Course description
The aim of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the way technology can be regulated by the law. There is sometimes the belief that the development of technology would exist absent any legal framework. However, in recent years, regulation has competed many loopholes and challenges that newest technologies might have created, such as artificial intelligence, data protection, or the growing power of the GAFAM.

After some introductory chapters that will assess the importance of regulation and the institution that are used in that context, regulation of technology through intellectual property law (including the interplay that exists between intellectual property law and artificial intelligence), artificial intelligence, data and data protection will be assessed. Then, some economics of competition law will be taught as well as an introduction to the three pillars that compose competition law. This basis will allow us to move to specific cases where competition law interfered with technology, before moving to the assessment of pharmaceutical markets through competition law.

The last part of the course, again, will concern regulatory law. There, we will assess the regulation of digital markets and of artificial intelligence. Finally, we will also analyse how intellectual production can also happen in the absence of any regulation that will protect it.

Learning outcomes
The course will allow students with different academic backgrounds to understand the interplay that exists on different levels between law and technology. A broad spectrum of relevant disciplines is involved (sociology, economics, law) to understand political and legal implications of various solutions to regulate markets and maintain competition. The knowledge such gained is of importance in different situations: academia, practice, politics or culture. Students will be aware of the different ways to regulate technology, through intellectual property law, regulatory law and competition law.

Teaching and evaluation methods
Teaching
The course will be taught using a combination of preparatory readings (articles, book chapters, court and administrative authority decisions) and class discussions. The readings, which will be distributed in advance, will be compulsory and form the basis of the discussions. The course materials structure the entire course program. Review questions will accompany the readings, which will have to be prepared by the students and to debate them in class.
Evaluation
A. 2-hour written final essay: 70% of the final course mark
B. Class participation: 15% of the final course mark.
C. Essay and short presentation in class: 15% of the final course mark.

Provisional program and readings
Week 1
Why regulate markets and with which institutions? I Komesar, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9

Week 2
Why regulate markets and with which institutions? II Komesar, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9

Week 3
Intellectual property law as a way to foster innovation

Week 4
IP and AI

Week 5
Data and data protection
Reading: The EU General Data Protection Regulation

Week 6
Economics of competition law
The three pillars of competition law Whish/Bailey, Chapters 1, 2

Week 7
Regulating technology through competition law I
Discussion based on decisions of the EU Commission and Court of Justice of the European Union (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Amazon…)

Week 8
Regulating technology through competition law II
Discussion based on decisions of the EU Commission and Court of Justice of the European Union (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Amazon…)

Week 9
Regulating pharmaceutical markets through competition law
Discussion based on decisions of the EU Commission and Court of Justice of the European Union (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Amazon…)

Week 10
Regulating digital markets
From traditional markets to digital ecosystems Reading: The EU digital market act

Week 11
Regulating AI
Reading: The EU AI Act

Week 12
Intellectual production with no regulation

Bibliography
• Andriychuk, Oleg, Shaping the new modality of the digital markets: The impact of the DSA/DMA proposals on inter-platform competition, (2021) 44(3) World Competition, 261.
• Benhamou, Yaniv, Big Data and the Law: a holistic analysis based on a three-step approach - Mapping property like rights, their exceptions and licensing practices, 2020 Revue Suisse de Droit des Affaires, 405.
• De Werra, Jacques, Patents and Trade Secrets in the Internet Age, (2015) 134(II) Revue de Droit Suisse, 123.
• Drexel, Josef/Hilty, Reto M./Desaunettes-Barbero, Luc/Globocnik, Jure/Gonzalez Otero, Begoña/Hoffmann, Jörg/Kim, Daria/Kulhari, Shraddha/Richter, Heiko/Scheuber, Stefan/Slowinski, Peter R./Wiedermann, Klaus, Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Law, Position Statement of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition of 9 April 2021 on the Current Debate, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Research Paper No. 21-10, Munich 2021, 12.
• Floridi, Luciano, The European Legilslation on AI: A Brief Analysis of its Philosophical Approach, (2021) 34, Philosophy and Technology, 215.
• Ginsburg, Jane C./Budiardjo, Luke, Authors and Machines, (2019) 34 Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 396.
• Komesar, Neil K., Choosing Institutions in Law, Economics and Public Policy, Chicago/London 1994.
• Greenhalgh, Christine/Rogers, Mark, Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Economic Growth, Princeton 2010.
• Landes, William M./Posner Richard A., The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law, Cambridge 2003.
• Podszun, Rupprecht, From Competition Law to Platform Regulation – Regulatory Choices for the Digital Markets Act, (2023) 17(1) Economics,
• Raposo, Vera Lúcia, Ex machina: preliminary critical assessment of the European Draft Act on artificial intelligence, (2022) 30(1) International Journal of Law and Information Technology, 88.
• Strowel, Alain, Big Data and Data Appropriation in the EU, in Aplin (ed.), Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Digital Technologies, Cheltenham/Northampton 2018, 12.
• Whish, Richard/Bailey David, Competition Law, 10th ed., Oxford 2021.

Last updated: January 28, 2025