Digital

At the cutting edge of the debate

Given the complexity, fast pace, and unique features of the digital sector, it’s critical to work with experts who truly understand it.

Oxera has been a trusted voice in the digital market for several years. We work with the biggest players—and some of the smallest—as well as regulators, policymakers, and competition authorities around the world.

We’ve been involved in shaping the economic thinking around big issues like competition, fairness, liability, and privacy, as well as the impact and valuation of digital assets, including algorithms, blockchains, and data.

Making a meaningful contribution in five key areas

Our experience and expertise falls into five key areas.

Policy: The innovative nature of digital—and its challenging of the status quo—naturally creates problems to solve. We bring together companies, advisers, policymakers, and academics to discuss the key issues, and we act as a bridge between these stakeholders to ensure that growth is balanced with benefits to society and consumers. We’ve been involved in some of the biggest disruptions of recent years, including challenges to the gig economy and disintermediation of traditional banks through peer-to-peer lending.
Antitrust: In Digital, the standard antitrust rules often simply do not—or cannot—apply. This means that we have to get creative, building new tools to achieve the objectives of tech companies and competition and regulatory authorities. Our innovative thinking in this area means that we’re often invited to contribute to cases across the EU, UK, and USA, and we regularly speak at events for regulators and competition authorities across Europe.
Data and privacy: Data is one of the biggest challenges of the digital era—from its corporate use to the impact on individual privacy—and requires many different areas of economics and finance expertise. For example, we help businesses to understand the value of data in different contexts, from antitrust to privacy and GDPR, and support them in preparing for regulation under the Digital Markets Act and the UK’s Digital Markets Unit. We advise some of the world’s biggest digital companies on issues in this area, including data access, data theft, and data gathering.
AI and algorithms: Clients seek us out on potential issues arising from AI and algorithms, including bias and discrimination. Our work in this field has included advising on how the use of AI and algorithms in the context of financial services can lead to opaque decision-making, raising concerns about how these decisions are made and whether all customers are being treated fairly.
Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency requires its own financial ecosystem, including policy, regulation, and competition metrics. We advise cryptocurrency clients on issues around exchanges, currency design, antitrust, and how they interact with financial services systems and payment mechanisms.

Cross-sectoral expertise

For our digital clients, our cross-sectoral approach means that we’re able to combine our deep understanding of their business models with inspiration and insights from a variety of different sectors.

For example, in telecoms, we’ve observed both the advantages and pitfalls that can arise from regulating a dynamic, technology-led industry. Meanwhile, in transport, we’ve seen how data can be an enabler of both dynamic competition and wider societal benefits.