If you go online today looking to buy a new washing machine, you'll find an almost endless choice of products. Fortunately, there are price comparison portals that can help you cut through the thicket: These sites provide a quick and easy way of finding the best price for the model you want. But what if you find that all retailers are charging exactly the same price for a particular washing machine? It could just be a coincidence – but it might also be an indication of illegal price-fixing.

In order for competition authorities to take action against such price-fixing agreements, however, the authorities need to prove that illegal practice exists in the first place. In her research, Viktoria Robertson, a professor of commercial law, competition law, and digitalization at WU, investigates new methods to do just that – with the help of data science. Data publicly available on the internet – for example on price comparison sites – can be used to detect suspicious pricing practices. This new branch of competition law has been dubbed computational antitrust. First studies exploring this new avenue of research have produced promising results – but a lot of research is still needed to unlock the potential of computational antitrust for actual antitrust proceedings.

In the latest episode of Meet Our Researchers, Viktoria Robertson outlines the state of research in this new discipline, where she is conducting cutting-edge research. After filming, we met her in her office to learn more about her research, her fascination with competition law, and her favorite places on Campus WU.

You have over 15 years of research on competition law under your belt, including a large number of publications on this topic. What fascinates you about this field of research?

Competition law has so many different facets! On the one hand, it’s about hands-on issues such as price-fixing, abuses of market power, and merger control. But at a fundamental level, it’s also about how we want to live together as a society. The roots of antitrust law in the USA, for example, are based on democratic considerations. In 1890, Senator Sherman argued “[i]f we will not endure a king as a political power, … we should not submit to an autocrat of trade.” Power needs to be checked, not only in politics but also in business.

Computational antitrust requires a great deal of technical expertise. What are the challenges of interdisciplinary work at the intersection of law and data science?

Interdisciplinary research is challenging, in a positive way. I have to explain my research questions and methods to colleagues from other disciplines, and, vice versa, I also have to understand their approaches. I’ve gained so many new insights in this process – insights into other disciplines, but also a deeper understanding of my own field. Ultimately, this allows us to generate new academic knowledge that transcends disciplinary borders.

When it comes to competition law, Big Tech companies are currently dominating the news. What are your thoughts on the dominant position of these companies?

We’ve all shifted part of our professional and social lives to the digital sphere, so this is an issue that concerns us all. Through the digital platforms we use every day, Big Tech companies wield a lot of power. Just think of online searches, WhatsApp messages, music streaming, and so on. The question is: Who keeps this power in check? How much user information do the Big Tech giants need to personalize a search query for us? Do they really need to know our age, our origin, our resting heart rate, and our last purchases on Amazon? And what does Big Tech use this information for? Competition law, but also new regulations such as the Digital Markets Act, are there to monitor the economic power wielded by Big Tech and intervene if necessary. Competition authorities and courts have sent some important signals over the last few months, and now it’s important to step up these efforts. 

Does Big Tech also play a role in your current research? 

It sure does! I’m currently working on the question of how the political power of Big Tech, which can exert an undue influence on our system of liberal democracy, can best be tackled from the perspective of competition law. I did some research on this question in Oxford earlier this year, and I’ll also be speaking on this topic before the OECD in Paris this coming December.

I’m also working on theories of harm for digital mergers. Big Tech is incredibly good at buying up innovative start-ups to eliminate potential future competitors. The question is: What theories of harm can competition authorities apply when examining such mergers? What insights can we glean from case law and from economics in this endeavor? This is also an important topic for me in my capacity as a Non-Governmental Advisor to the European Commission in the International Competition Network.

Of course, I’m also continuing my projects in the field of computational antitrust, as mentioned in the video. Preliminary data on the use of unsupervised machine learning for antitrust law screening is already available, and you can expect to see some exciting results soon!

What are some of the things you particularly like about WU?

We have a unique campus that brings all of us together here at the edge of the Prater park. This environment stimulates the exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries – it’s really inspiring to be able to work in such a setting. Guests from other universities abroad often have a hard time believing that we, as a public university, have such a remarkable campus. We have all reason to be proud of that! As a member of the WU Senate’s Research Committee, I’d also like to mention our WU Research Encounters series, which we launched earlier this year together with the Vice-Rector for Research, Bernadette Kamleitner. The Research Encounters encourage a lively academic dialog within the WU community, and they are an incubator for new project ideas. In November, we’ll be focusing on the topic of innovation, for example.

Do you have a favorite place on Campus WU?

The Library and Learning Center by Zaha Hadid – it’s such a unique building, and an absolute must-see in every campus tour I give – including a stop at the Library Café, of course.