Gentjan Skara

Name and Surname
Gentjan Skara

Affiliation
Epoka University, Albania

Short Biography

Gentjan Skara holds an LLB from the University of Tirana (Albania); an MA in “European Studies” from Epoka University (Albania); an LLM for “South-East European Law and European Integration” from the University of Graz; PhD in “EU Law and National Legal System program” from the University of Ferrara. Genti has been a visiting fellow at the Institute of Corporate and International Commercial Law, University of Graz (Austria), the Department of International Law, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Institute for European Global Studies, University of Basel (Switzerland).
As of 1 August 2023, Genti is a full-time member of the Department of Law at Epoka University and teaches EU Law, EU Competition Law and Law and Technology courses. In May 2022, Genti published a book in a well-known publisher, Springer Nature, titled “Europeanization of Albanian Competition Law: The Case of Albania”. In addition, Genti’s scholarship has been published in peer-reviewed international journals. His research interests relate to EU Law, competition law, the harmonisation of laws, and the interplay between online platforms and law.
Besides academic engagement, Genti is a National Legal expert for the “Internal Market and Competition” of EU acquis near the Ministry of European and Foreign Affairs, Republic of Albania and has provided its expertise to different organisations on issues related to harmonization of law, competition law and regulation of digital platforms.

Research abstract

Competition law enforcement in Western Balkan Countries: Challenges from online giants
Online platforms are indispensable to our daily activities as users. In addition, businesses are increasingly using online platforms in the business model. While the increase of online platforms boosts innovation and develops the economy, few online platforms act as gatekeepers by controlling a large digital market, likely leading to unfair practices and conditions for business users and end users. These gatekeepers have challenged the traditional enforcement of competition law in the digital markets. To address the behaviour of large online platforms in the internal market, on 24 March 2022, the EU adopted a regulation commonly known as the Digital Market Act.
As the DMA became effective in 2023, pursuant to the Stabilisation and Association Agreement harmonisation clause, the Western Balkan countries must transpose this regulation into their domestic legal system. Likewise, in the EU, the growth of digital platforms and e-commerce platforms has created new challenges for Western Balkan countries National Competition Authorities in handling cases concerning online platforms. This research analyses the enforcement of competition rules in the digital market in Western Balkan countries and discusses the main challenges that the Western Balkan countries national competition authorities face with online platforms.
The primary methodology is that of doctrinal legal research and comparative legal research. The doctrinal legal research analyses the current Western Balkan countries competition legislative act and the National Competition Authority case law. The comparative legal research compares whether and to what extent Western Balkan countries competition law addresses the behaviour of online platforms.
This research argues that the Western Balkan countries national competition authorities lack the necessary human, financial, and technical resources to handle these kinds of cases.