Baker McKenzie Antitrust & Competition Partner Jeff Martino recently spoke with POLITICO about the growing concern over AI driven price-setting and shared his insights on what companies should do to avoid colluding by mistake.
As AI becomes increasingly engrained in business operations, antitrust enforcers are beginning to scrutinize AI’s use, especially as it relates to algorithmic price-setting. From the regulators’ point of view, given AI’s ability to view competitors’ sales and pricing data, it stands to reason that the technology could make pricing recommendations across an entire industry, reducing competition and hurting the consumer.
From California to New York, newly drafted laws aimed at combating algorithmic price fixing are coming into effect and, with them, increased penalties for wrongdoing. Already, the DOJ has made claims against a real estate analytics company for enabling landlords to inflate rents through the use of shared confidential data in its algorithm.
Although there may be hurdles for regulators trying to pursue these types of cases, Jeff emphasizes the importance of updating corporate oversight policies now. He notes that, “[by] ensuring [that] algorithms are not using competitors’ confidential data,” companies will have a stronger line of defense in fighting future AI-related collusion claims.
The full article can be read here: AI creates a new antitrust puzzle - POLITICO
As AI becomes increasingly engrained in business operations, antitrust enforcers are beginning to scrutinize AI’s use, especially as it relates to algorithmic price-setting. From the regulators’ point of view, given AI’s ability to view competitors’ sales and pricing data, it stands to reason that the technology could make pricing recommendations across an entire industry, reducing competition and hurting the consumer.
From California to New York, newly drafted laws aimed at combating algorithmic price fixing are coming into effect and, with them, increased penalties for wrongdoing. Already, the DOJ has made claims against a real estate analytics company for enabling landlords to inflate rents through the use of shared confidential data in its algorithm.
Although there may be hurdles for regulators trying to pursue these types of cases, Jeff emphasizes the importance of updating corporate oversight policies now. He notes that, “[by] ensuring [that] algorithms are not using competitors’ confidential data,” companies will have a stronger line of defense in fighting future AI-related collusion claims.
The full article can be read here: AI creates a new antitrust puzzle - POLITICO
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