Earlier this month, Paris became once again the global hub for competition authorities and policymakers from around the world as the OECD hosted the 24th Global Forum on Competition. Over 400 participants representing more than 112 countries, international and regional organisations came together to share insights, debate policy options and tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing competition today.
Over two days of lively and forward-looking exchanges, discussions ranged from the impact of artificial intelligence on competitive dynamics in downstream markets, to competition in the healthcare sector, enforcement in informal markets, balancing competing priorities in competition policy, and a peer review of Kenya’s competition regime. Below are the key takeaways from this year’s Global Forum.
1. Global Forum on Competition as the cornerstone of an increasingly globalised competition community
This year’s Global Forum on Competition opened with remarks by Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and a keynote address by Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition at the European Commission.
Mathias Cormann highlighted the Global Forum on Competition as the cornerstone of an increasingly globalised competition community, underlining the significant expansion of competition regimes, enforcement capacity and analytical sophistication worldwide. He stressed that while authorities have strengthened merger control and adapted tools to digitalisation and emerging technologies such as AI, enforcement faces mounting challenges linked to resource constraints and growing complexity, which may help account for why antitrust enforcement has been on a downward trend over the past decade. Against this backdrop, he emphasised the need for continued convergence, effective enforcement, and stronger co-operation to ensure that competition policy remains fit for purpose.
Teresa Ribera then stressed that competition policy and enforcement cannot be shaped or applied in isolation: authorities must stay attuned to real market dynamics and remain flexible and forward-looking in responding to challenges such as sustainability and digital transformation. Given the global nature of these challenges, she also underlined the importance of strong multilateral co-operation, emphasising knowledge-sharing and mutual learning, with the OECD Global Forum on Competition as the long-standing focal point of this effort.
The OECD also launched a special edition of the OECD Competition Trends report to mark ten years of data collection, covering the period 2015–2024 across more than 60 jurisdictions. The publication reviews major developments in competition enforcement over the past decade and presents the report’s key findings.
▶️ Watch the opening session on replay
🔗 Access the publication “A Decade of OECD Competition Trends, Data and Insights”
2. Artificial intelligence is altering competitive dynamics, with uneven benefits and familiar risks
The session on Artificial Intelligence and Competitive Dynamics in Downstream Markets highlighted artificial intelligence as a true general-purpose technology with transformative potential across the economy, but whose benefits are spreading unevenly. High costs, technical complexity and data and security risks are contributing to a growing gap between large firms and SMEs. While AI can boost competition through innovation, efficiency and new market entry, it may also reinforce market power via vertical integration, ecosystem strategies and foreclosure, even in the absence of strong data advantages. Participants agreed that the main competition risks remain familiar – such as algorithmic collusion, self-preferencing and price discrimination – but that opacity and the speed of algorithmic systems are making these risks harder to identify and address. Authorities stressed that existing tools often lack the agility required and that limited resources constrain effective oversight. The discussion pointed to the need for stronger co-operation between regulators, robust governance and compliance frameworks that safeguard innovation, enhanced consumer protection, and policies that broaden access to key AI inputs such as data, computing power and infrastructure.
🔗 More about Artificial Intelligence and Competitive Dynamics in Downstream Markets inlcuding the OECD note and all session materials
✒️ Competition and Artificial Intelligence will be discussed again in an event open to all on 4 March 2026. Register now for the OECD Competition Open Day 2026
3. Competition authorities are strengthening scrutiny, enforcement and advocacy in complex healthcare markets
The session on Competition in the Healthcare Sector explored how competition authorities can tackle mounting enforcement challenges in the healthcare sector, driven by information asymmetries, complex regulation and diverse financing models, in a sector of critical economic and social importance. Through a plenary discussion and two breakout sessions, participants shared best practices in pro-competitive regulatory advocacy, market studies, sector inquiries and closer co-operation with health authorities. Breakout discussions zoomed in on key non-price dimensions of healthcare, including access, quality and equity, as well as competition risks along the pharmaceutical value chain, such as intellectual property, pricing and vertical integration. Overall, the session underlined the need for more systematic scrutiny of healthcare markets and for stronger, sustained co-operation between competition authorities and health institutions.
🔗 Learn more about Competition in the Health sector
4. Informal markets create distinct challenges for competition analysis and enforcement
The roundtable on Competition Law Enforcement in Informal Markets shed light on the impact of informal economic activity on competition law and policy, showing that informality is not a marginal phenomenon but a structural feature of many markets. Discussions highlighted how informal operators can exert real competitive pressure on formal firms, while persistent data gaps complicate market definition, competitive analysis and effective enforcement.
Participants shared innovative ways to overcome these challenges, including new approaches to measuring informality through labour force surveys, multidimensional indices and digital traces from online platforms. They emphasised how alternative sources of evidence, such as social media content, can assist investigations, and how proportionate enforcement, advocacy, and cooperation with tax and licensing authorities can enhance effectiveness. As digitalisation continues to blur market boundaries, the roundtable underscored the need to fully integrate informal activity into competition analysis.
🔗 Find out more on Competition Law Enforcement in Informal Markets
5. Competition authorities are navigating possible trade-offs between competition policy and wider public interest goals
The session on Balancing Competing Priorities in Competition Policy explored how governments and competition authorities are broadening the traditional focus on efficiency and consumer welfare to integrate wider public interest objectives such as growth, resilience, circularity and equity. Agency heads from the UK, Australia, Romania and the Philippines shared concrete national experiences of how they navigate potential trade-offs between these objectives and competition law in practice.
While reaffirming their independence as enforcers, speakers described how authorities are increasingly refocusing enforcement priorities and strengthening their enabling role vis-à-vis government, notably by advising on how competition can support public policy choices, in areas such as public procurement and supply-chain resilience. Other adaptations discussed included removing outdated regulatory burdens and acknowledging that limited collaboration may sometimes be justified. The session also highlighted key challenges, notably ensuring legal predictability when objectives are broadly defined and assessing net public welfare in the absence of robust quantitative tools.
6. Peer Reviews drive reforms and build trust
The forum also spotlighted the OECD's peer review process, with Kenya’s competition framework under examination this year. Peer reviews are praised as powerful tools for assessing national competition policies, fostering transparency, and encouraging improvements. Such reviews not only benefit the reviewed countries but also strengthen global trust and cooperation in competition enforcement.
The Peer Review will be publically launched in Kenya early 2026.
🔗 Discover more OECD Competition Law and Policy Reviews.
The 2025 Global Forum on Competition demonstrated the transformative potential of competition policy when aligned with broader societal objectives. The insights shared will undoubtedly shape policy innovations and enforcement strategies in the years ahead. For more information on the OECD’s work in this area, visit the Global Forum on Competition website.
