Hidden Layers is our new technology newsletter covering tech policy developments in the United States and the European Union, to keep both sides of the Atlantic informed on a quarterly basis.

The Jordan Strategy Forum (JSF) published a “Knowledge is Power” report entitled “Readiness for Frontier Technologies Index 2021”, issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTAD in 2021. The report sheds light on Jordan’s performance on the index and draws some recommendations to enhance its ability in becoming an advanced “catch-up innovation economy”.

The growing importance of platforms and the need to put in place corrective measures and instruments to prevent abuses and offences has led to a rethinking of the current regulatory framework. To regulate the new critical issues connected to the affirmation of online intermediaries and platforms, on 15 December 2020, the European Commission submitted the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) which represent one of the most important milestones of the EU digital strategy launched in February 2020.

As the digital sphere continues to grow at an explosive rate, global digital firms have grown in parallel and reached astronomical market capitalizations. With improper framing of competition regulation, those seeking to challenge the perceived monopoly of big digital platforms often forget about the consumer welfare principle and pursue policies incongruent with their goals.