EU to promote healthy competition in the metaverse

To be specific, Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the digital age emphasised that the region should adapt and react to new market dynamics in the digital era. During her keynote for the Keystone Conference, she talked about the digital transition and the shift to a digital economy, as well as the risks and opportunities that these shifts might present. 

She highlighted that current legislation is falling behind technological advancements and that this could prove to be a valuable lesson for the future. As the legislative process is still likely to remain behind tech innovations, Vestager noted the importance of anticipating and planning for such changes. 

In this context, she brought up the need to visualise how a healthy competition should look like in the metaverse while keeping a close look at technologies such as ChatGPT and how they may change the tech environment. 

In a more practical sense, the commissioner revealed that the European Commission plans to have a close look at Facebook and to enforce antitrust investigations starting with May 2023 aimed at the Facebook marketplace and how Meta uses ads-related data from rivals.

The EU’s blockchain regulatory sandbox 

In February 2023, the European Commission has launched a new regulatory sandbox for innovative use cases involving Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT). The sandbox is funded by the Digital Europe Programme and is scheduled to operate from 2023 to 2026. It was designed to support 20 projects each year, including public sector use cases on the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure, with projects being chosen based on calls for expression of interest.  

It's worth noting that the most innovative regulator that takes part in the sandbox will receive an annual prize. The sandbox will be facilitated by a syndicate led by Bird & Bird and its consulting arm OXYGY with support from WBNoDE and web designers of Spindox. As for the selection process, a panel of independent academic experts will oversee it.

The main goal of the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox is to support the cross-border dialogue with and between regulators and supervisors, and between companies or public authorities. The sandbox will also allow supervisors to improve their knowledge of DLT-related technologies. Learned lessons will be shared between participating regulators, thus allowing the Commission to identify best practices.