Chief-in-Editor  Prof. Badria A. Al-Awadi

The need to enact laws and legislations to regulate competition and limit monopoly is linked to the development of the capitalist economy in Western markets and societies, the opening of new markets, and the growth of inventions and intellectual and technological innovations. Social movements – represented in unions, civil society and consumer organizations – as well as bodies representing the business sector, especially owners of small and medium enterprises, have contributed to the demand for the activation of these laws and legislation and their implementation in a manner that preserves the interests of the various parties and achieves social justice.

These interrelated economic and social data have prompted an increase in legal awareness of the importance of legislation, laws and regulations that regulate competition and limit monopoly in various industries and markets. Law faculties around the world have allocated special courses for this purpose. Some of them have established departments and research units to serve this matter. This coincided with the emergence of specialized judges and courts, which have issued numerous varied jurisprudence and precedents, and resulted in jurisprudential contributions in this field.

Therefore, it was natural for all these developments to be reflected on a practical level, whether in disputes, cases, rulings and legislation. European and international courts issue final and effective rulings and decisions on a weekly basis, including fines and compensation of hundreds of millions of dollars in monopoly cases, and breach of the rules and conditions of use and competition, against major technology companies, such as “Google”, “Apple”, “Samsung” and others.

In addition to governments, telecom regulators and small and medium technology companies, print and visual media have also joined the list of plaintiffs seeking compensation as a result of what they consider to be the unfair use policies of the global search engine “Google”, which generates revenue from advertisements embedded in the data and information it provides to users, while the ownership and distribution rights belong to those media outlets as producers. The latter has recently obtained a decisive French ruling in this regard, which expands the circle of those concerned with the rules of competition, which raises new legal problems.

These and other developments prompted the US Congress to start, at the end of May 2021, discussing a package of new anti-trust and competition regulation, targeting mainly major technology companies, as some of these legislations include the reorganization or dismantling of companies such as “Google”, “Facebook” and Amazon” and “Apple”, as well as preventing some of them from operating third-party platforms, all with the aim of fighting monopoly and reducing its negative effects on small and medium-sized companies, as it provides jobs for large numbers of developers and graduates.

These developments in the US Congress have led to discussions between supporters of major companies and their opponents inside and outside the United States of America. Many have seen that the dismantling of these companies will lead to a decline in services and the emergence of gaps in applications and industries, which ultimately leads to a negative impact on development economic and technological, and enhance the opportunities of foreign companies at the expense of American companies. Others saw that allowing the expansion of large companies and the continuation of their monopoly on services, products and applications would destroy the chances of continuity of thousands of small and medium companies, which exacerbates unemployment, reduces the development of constructive and productive competition, and limits new innovations and inventions.

Although these issues and discussions are not new in the United States of America, interest has increased in the recent period in view of their effects and interactions locally and internationally, both from a legal point of view, as American companies have become subject to local and international prosecutions, or from an economic point of view as polarizations, acquisitions, and monopolies from large companies have increased, leading to the increase in prices and services for middle and low-income social classes, which ultimately threatens social stability.

There is no doubt that the issues and challenges of regulating competition and limiting monopoly are not only a European or American issue, but rather a global issue. Its facts, effects and repercussions include Arab countries and markets. Therefore, reviewing legislation, laws and regulations regulating competition and limiting monopoly is a priority. It requires the attention of legislators, experts and specialists, in addition to the leading and prospective role of legal jurisprudence and law faculties in this field.