Thibault Schrepel

🎙️ NEW PODCAST 🎙️ Where should I start? I am launching a new academic podcast called “Scaling Theory”. I am of course incredibly excited, but more importantly, I hope you’ll find it interesting. I want to explore the power laws behind the growth of businesses, technologies, legal systems, and living systems. The podcast will feature scholarly discussions with select guests (I’ve already recorded a couple, to be published very soon!!) and deep dives into the academic literature. Everything is explained in the introductory episode. ➝ Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7o5GqRfTO… ➝ Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sca… ➝ YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCoxJ0…

I ran the @EU_Competition’s new draft Merger Guidelines against all the merger decisions ever published. In many regards, the Guidelines go against the case law while pretending otherwise. Paper to follow...

@Sherman1890 Thanks so much Herb 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

for people interested in competition law and technology I highly recommend Thibault Schrepel's new substack, "The Competition System," thecompetitionsystem.substack.com

“The problem isn’t that the sovereignty legal stack doesn’t exist. It is that it governs how foreign technology behaves in Europe without producing any European technology.”

Summer = research & running ☀️ Living in Amsterdam for eight years is a gift. Why travel elsewhere in the summer? With the canals, forests, the swimming, we have so much right here. This city is so incredibly hard to beat during the summer time.

Brussels calls the June Tech Sovereignty Package the moment Europe finally gets serious about digital independence. I mapped 34 EU digital laws and show that Europe has been legislating sovereignty for many years already. Five distinct mechanisms, built one instrument at a time. The problem isn’t that the sovereignty legal stack doesn’t exist. It is that it governs how foreign technology behaves in Europe without producing any European technology. New piece on my Substack, The Competition System 👇 thecompetitionsystem.substack.com/p/the-paperwor… @DigitalEU @HennaVirkkunen @EU_Commission

New #ScalingTheory episode out now, with @sapinker. Here, Steven weighs up effective altruism. ▶️ youtube.com/watch?v=ijNjY7… 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/36hXGo… 🍎 podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/sca…

Two AI agents. 400 rounds of pricing. No agreement, no messages, and yet the price keeps climbing. One of them even suggests they avoid raising red flags. Tanise Brandão and Carlos Neves (CADE) join Alba Ribera Martínez and me on the new Stanford #ComputationalAntitrust episode. Collusion without a meeting of minds. Apple: podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/sta… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/35RTEr… YouTube: youtu.be/bDrN6Q-YryE

A quick note for Master’s students and supervisors working on competition law, competitiveness, economics, or related topics: The call for submissions is still open for the Best Master’s Thesis Award in European Competition Law & Competitiveness, organized by the Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute and the International Center for Law & Economics. We will select three outstanding Master’s theses. The selected authors will be invited to Amsterdam in November 2026 to present their work at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with travel and accommodation covered. I am delighted that this year’s jury brings together Christian Bergqvist, Natalie Harsdorf, Frédéric Jenny, Maria Maciá, Alba Ribera Martínez, and myself. 📅 Deadline: 31 August 2026 📩 Submit your thesis in PDF format to: awards@laweconcenter.org Full call: alti.amsterdam/call-for-submi… I would be grateful if colleagues could share this with students who might be interested.

The Google Android fine was never the story. The story is one sentence at paragraph 278 that retires the as-efficient competitor test in digital markets. It will be quoted for years. My full audit of C-738/22 P, including the two paragraphs of Intel the Court walked past 👇 thecompetitionsystem.substack.com/p/the-quiet-re…

The end of net neutrality? Daniel Spulber argues that recent court decisions have effectively ended the FCC's net neutrality regulation, which will encourage investment, innovation, and support the continued expansion of e-commerce networklawreview.org/farewell-net-n…

I am launching a newsletter. It is called The Competition System. It is an empirical, referenced account of the cases and rules that shape competition in Europe. Articles 101 and 102, the DMA, DSA, the AI Act, MiCA, the Data Act, etc. Every claim is traceable to its source. That last point matters to me. Everything I write will tie back to a decision, a provision, or a judgment you can check yourself. If you practice, enforce, or study competition law, this is built for you. Practitioners get a reading they can cite with confidence. Officials get a view of how the rules connect across regimes. Academics get the underlying sources, not just the argument. Nobody has to take my word for anything. The first post is on Google Android. It is a good test of the method, since few cases carry as much commentary or as much disagreement about what they actually hold. Subscribe here: thecompetitionsystem.substack.com

Something is cooking.

I spoke to Economy Chosun (South Korea) about the rise of acquihires in AI. My view ➝ this is not an evasion. It is a rational response to incentives regulators built. If the result surprises us, the problem is the incentive, not the firm.

New on Scaling Theory. I sat down with @sapinker (@Harvard) to talk about common knowledge. The difference between what you know and what everyone knows that everyone knows. That small gap explains more than it should. Why a child can undo an emperor with a single sentence. Why dictators fall the moment the square fills up. Why nobody names the elephant in the room. Why a bank is only as sound as what we believe about one another. Listen below: ➝ YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=ijNjY7… ➝ Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/36hXGo… ➝ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/sca…

The DMA’s list of core platform services was written for a world of separable apps. Foundation models are not separable. One model does the work of a dozen categories. The list breaks. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…