Let the Digital Euro Circulate: Introducing a Retail C.B.D.C. in the Eurozone With Unlimited Holdings by Users

2023-05-04T23:49:44+02:00

The European Central Bank (E.C.B.) anticipates including a holding limit of about e3,000 per user within the design of its potential retail central bank digital currency for the Eurozone, the digital euro. This is principally motivated by concerns regarding compliance with regulations related to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and the disintermediation of banks as credit intermediaries. This paper argues that these concerns are unwarranted, and, in any case, the holding limit would not be an effective solution to these concerns. The digital euro could be introduced with unlimited holdings by individual users in conformity with E.U. law and while maintaining banks as credit intermediaries in the Eurozone financial system.

An Overview on the Scope of the Digital Markets Act: Fair Practices Versus Ex‐Ante Competition Law

2023-05-09T13:38:17+02:00

The proposed Digital Markets Act has been under severe scrutiny in the past couple of years. While it received mostly positive feedback, there were numerous authors and scholars arguing that the new legislation does not provide anything useful or new. The common denominator of most of the analyses is that the Digital Markets Act is an ex-ante antitrust legislation and that the obligations tackle the (abusive) dominance of the gatekeepers to be designated. In this article, I try to deconstruct the requirements for determining whether an undertaking is a gatekeeper and to assess whether the proposal fits into a regulatory compliance type of legislation or ex-ante competition law. In addition to the analytical approach, I will take the example of the Intel and Microsoft cases and the intricacies that arose from them. I will further assess possible implications that the proposal might have for innovation and other aspects of the market.

University of Bologna Law Review

Let the Digital Euro Circulate: Introducing a Retail C.B.D.C. in the Eurozone With Unlimited Holdings by Users

An Overview on the Scope of the Digital Markets Act: Fair Practices Versus Ex‐Ante Competition Law