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Mar 18
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EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF AGREEMENT IN EUROPEAN UNION COMPETITION LAW: FROM CONSENSUS OF WILLS TO ALGORITHMIC COORDINATION

Aleksandra Vasić

10.55836/PiP_26104A
ABSTRACT /

This paper analyzes the evolution of the concept of “agreement” in European Union competition law, with particular reference to the application of Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the digital context. The point of departure is the traditional understanding of an agreement as the expression of a concurrence of wills between market participants (“meeting of minds”), which, through the practice of the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union, has acquired a broad and functional meaning.
The paper specifically examines the Eturas judgment, which for the first time recognized that a digital platform may operate as a means of anticompetitive coordination between competitors. This case marks a turning point in the development of the doctrine of concerted practices, as it introduces the possibility of coordination occurring even in the absence of direct human contact.
The paper further considers the typology of algorithmic coordination as an analytical framework for assessing whether algorithmic mechanisms may give rise to an agreement or a concerted practice within the meaning of Article 101(1) TFEU. The author concludes that contemporary technological developments require a reassessment of the classical notion of agreement in competition law and a shift of focus from the concurrence of wills toward the foreseeable anticompetitive effects of algorithmic systems — from the “meeting of minds” to the “meeting of algorithms.

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