At the recent G7 Competition Summit in Rome on 4 October, the G7 countries and the European Commission continued their established exchange on competition issues in the digital sector and issued a joint statement on competition issues related to artificial intelligence (AI).

Objectives of the Declaration

Ensuring fair competition is at the heart of the declaration. The G7 emphasize that open market access and sufficient choice for consumers must be guaranteed so that they can benefit from the opportunities offered by AI.

Market Concentration as key challenge

The concentration of market power in the AI sector was highlighted as a potential competitive risk. In particular, the concentration of important upstream services on providers that are already active at several market levels was highlighted, as well as the possibility of large technology companies weakening competition by collaborating with smaller companies.

Conclusion

The G7 Competition Summit in Rome and the joint declaration of the member states once again underline the importance of international and interdisciplinary cooperation, both at political level and at the level of competition authorities - especially in connection with topics such as AI, which have the potential to potentiate competition problems.