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Malta's national competition authority, the Office for Competition within the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, has joined the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition and 14 other NCAs in a project to enhance capabilities and tools for the public enforcement of competition law in digital markets.
The project, DICE – Supporting Digital Transformation in Competition Law Enforcement, is set to run from 2026 to 2027. It is funded by the EU Technical Support Instrument and implemented by 28DIGITAL.
In a press release, Malta's Office for Competition announced its participation in the project. It claimed that the project is of "strategic importance" and will "strengthen digital competencies and investigative tools through tailored, practice-oriented training, knowledge-sharing and the adoption of advanced digital and data-driven methods." It remarked that the project will "ensure that competition enforcement remains robust and fit for purpose in the age of digitalisation and AI".
DICE is being launched in response to the growing digitalisation of markets and the resulting challenges faced by NCAs in the effective enforcement of competition rules. To tackle this, DICE includes baseline digital and AI maturity assessments, modular learning architecture, and collaborative learning networks, equipping NCAs with the skills, tools, and networks necessary to conduct technologically grounded investigations.
The project is expected to enhance interoperability, data capabilities, and cross-border collaboration to support key EU priorities and the EU's broader objectives for digital transformation, including the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and Artificial Intelligence Act. The project also contributes to the European Strategy for Data, enabling NCAs to process and analyse large volumes of market and behavioural data.
Malta's NCA has confirmed its participation, together with fourteen other NCAs, being, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
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