Source: Law Society Gazette

McCann FitzGerald lawyers say the adoption of AI by competition authorities across Europe and beyond is increasing and is likely to generate more investigations and dawn raids. They note that while anti-competitive practices are adapting to new technologies, authorities are using AI to gather market intelligence, increase efficiency and improve enforcement capacity.

The lawyers highlight a high-profile European Commission probe into tyre manufacturers where the commission used AI to analyse hundreds of thousands of public statements and earnings calls, producing signals that led to dawn raids carried out in January 2024; the commission suspected companies including Michelin of using public communications to signal and potentially co‑ordinate future prices. Michelin challenged inspections before the EU General Court; McCann FitzGerald says the court’s decision implicitly validated using AI to screen public information, and emphasised that combining quantitative AI analysis with manual qualitative review made the screening methodology legitimate. The firm also cites national examples: Spain’s CNMC deploying an AI-assisted tool trained on its public-procurement database, Lithuania’s Competition Council piloting AI-driven e-discovery and document-review platforms, and the UK’s CMA trialling tools to identify bid‑rigging. A scheme co-funded by the EU, the Digital Transformation in Competition Law Enforcement (DICE) project, was launched in January to reduce digital enforcement gaps and enhance AI capabilities across 15 EU competition authorities. McCann FitzGerald concludes that integrating AI into routine enforcement is a major undertaking but increasingly necessary, noting authorities are at different stages of development yet show a willingness to adapt operational methods.