Ep 86: Competition Enforcement in Eswatini: Institutional and Regional Perspectives

In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, host Sania Bafna sits down with Ms. Siboniselizulu Simelane Maseko, Chief Executive Officer of the Eswatini Competition Commission (ESCC), to explore the institutional, legal, and regional dimensions of competition enforcement in Eswatini.Drawing from her extensive regulatory experience, including her tenure with the COMESA Competition Commission, Ms. Maseko discusses how the ESCC operates across its core pillars of consumer protection, merger control, and cartel enforcement. The conversation examines the challenges of enforcing competition law in a small and highly concentrated economy, the development of Eswatini’s competition framework, and the practical realities of merger review and cartel enforcement. The discussion also explores competition policy and advocacy, the ESCC’s engagement with government and sector regulators, and the importance of regional cooperation with the COMESA Competition Commission. Looking ahead, Ms. Maseko reflects on the future of Eswatini’s competition law framework, including legal reform and institutional capacity, offering a broader perspective on competition enforcement in emerging and smaller jurisdictions.

In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, host Aditya Trivedi sits down with Prof. Spencer Weber Waller, John Paul Stevens Chair in Competition Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, to explore the intersection of market power, enforcement, and commercial theatre in America.Drawing from his book, Power and Greed: Monopolies, Mergers, and Cartels on the American Stage, Prof. Waller discusses how the Gilded Age theatrical Syndicate, the Shuberts, and early vaudeville combines established deep-seated monopolies that took antitrust authorities nearly sixty years to address. The conversation examines newly uncovered archival evidence revealing corporate coercion, blacklisting, and early efforts at global expansion. Grounding these historical lessons in contemporary market realities, Prof. Waller assesses modern bottlenecks in live entertainment, recent regulatory actions involving Live Nation, and whether competition law can effectively restrain entrenched market power.

In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, hosts Aditya Trivedi and Sania Bafna sit down with Mr. Bevan Narinesingh, Executive Director of the Trinidad and Tobago Fair Trading Commission, to unpack the evolution of competition law and market regulation in Trinidad and Tobago.The discussion examines the journey of Trinidad and Tobago’s competition regime from the Fair Trading Act of 2006 to its development in the years that followed, with a focus on anticompetitive agreements, merger control, abuse of dominance, and the enforcement challenges arising in a small and open economy. Mr. Narinesingh also shares insights into market concentration, regional competition enforcement, cross-border competition concerns, and the role of the CARICOM Competition Commission in shaping competition policy across Member States.The conversation offers a comparative perspective on how competition law operates within Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean, highlighting the institutional, economic, and regulatory considerations that shape effective competition enforcement in emerging competition regimes.

What does meaningful compliance with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 actually look like for businesses?In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, host Isheta Boruah is joined by Kaustubh Shakkarwar, a data protection and technology law practitioner working at the intersection of law, technology, data governance and global privacy compliance.The conversation moves beyond simply understanding the DPDP Act and focuses on the practical challenges companies face when turning legal obligations into functioning compliance systems.💡Key areas discussed:• Understanding the core framework and objectives of the DPDP Act, 2023• Identifying and classifying personal data across HR, marketing, operations and legacy systems• Building meaningful and legally compliant consent mechanisms• The role of Data Protection Officers and internal privacy governance• Managing data processors, vendors and third-party contractual risks• Data retention, deletion and preventing indefinite storage• Reasonable security safeguards and employee awareness• Handling Data Principal rights, including access, correction, erasure and grievance redressal• Preparing for cross-border data transfers and evolving regulatory requirements• Assessing compliance risks and understanding enforcement and penalties• The growing intersection between data protection and competition law• Lessons from the WhatsApp privacy policy litigation and what it means for consent, transparency and data sharing• How businesses can move from “paper compliance” to meaningful privacy governanceOne of the central questions of the episode is simple but important:Is DPDP compliance merely about having policies in place or is it about changing how organisations actually collect, use, share, retain and protect personal data?🎙️ Tune in to the latest episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law for the full conversation.

In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, hosts Aditya Trivedi and Sania Bafna are joined by Dr. Erman Ekingen, Assistant Professor of European Union Law at Çukurova University, to unpack the evolving landscape of digital market regulation and antitrust enforcement in Türkiye.The discussion explores the trajectory of Turkish competition law, focusing on the Turkish Competition Authority's (TCA) decisional practice against Big Tech and its comparative positioning alongside the EU’s Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. Dr. Ekingen shares detailed insights on Türkiye’s pending "gatekeeper" style amendments to Law No. 4054, the introduction of Undertakings with Significant Market Power (USMPs), and how qualitative criteria compare to the EU Digital Markets Act's quantitative thresholds. The conversation also dives into algorithmic opacity in AI-driven ad tools, self-preferencing dynamics in online advertising sector inquiries, market definition challenges on price-free platforms, and the regulatory overlap between digital platform enforcement and labour market antitrust.

In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, hosts Aditya Trivedi and Isheta Boruah are joined by Aparna Mehra, Partner at Trilegal one of India’s leading competition law practitioners, to discuss a rapidly emerging area of antitrust enforcement: labour markets.As regulators worldwide increasingly scrutinize wage-fixing, no-poach arrangements, information exchange, and hiring practices, businesses are facing new competition law risks that extend beyond traditional product and service markets.The conversation explores the implications of these developments for employers, recruitment agencies, and India’s rapidly growing Global Capability Centre (GCC) ecosystem. Miss. Aparna also shares insights on global enforcement trends, compliance measures, and what businesses should be doing today to prepare for the future of labour-market competition regulation.

In this episode of In Conversation with IPR & Competition Law, hosted by Aaditya Bajpai; Prof. (Dr.) Emmanuel Oke examines "The Glocal Space: Sovereignty and Strategy in International IP Law," focusing on the shift from traditional "globalization" to "glocalization." The conversation outlines the international IP system's division into unregulated local, regulated glocal, and global spaces, while highlighting how states use "wave resistance capabilities" to preserve national autonomy. Key topics include TRIPS Agreement tensions around territoriality, national treatment, and MFN standards; copyright's impact on academic publishing; and public health intersections in patent and trademark law, specifically through Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, the Canada – Pharmaceutical Patents case, and the Australia–Plain Packaging dispute. Finally, the episode addresses Western enforcement mechanisms like the "Special 301 Report" and the WTO Appellate Body's future.

this episode of In Conversation with IPR and Competition Law, we are joined by Dr. Alba Ribera Martínez — PhD, Lecturer in Digital Markets Regulation and Competition Law, Editor-in-Chief at Stanford Computational Antitrust, and contributor at The Binary Agora — for a deep dive into one of the most fascinating frontiers of modern competition law: Computational Antitrust.As algorithms increasingly shape pricing, recommendations, market visibility, and platform behaviour, competition enforcement itself is entering a new technological era. This episode explores whether computational tools and AI-driven enforcement mechanisms can effectively detect anti-competitive conduct in digital markets — and whether algorithms can truly “catch” algorithms.The conversation examines the rise of AI-powered market systems, tacit algorithmic collusion, self-preferencing by digital platforms, transparency concerns in automated enforcement, and the growing divide between technologically advanced regulators and developing competition authorities.

In this episode Isheta Boruah is joined by Avadhi Joshi, Managing Partner at VNA Partners, to discuss how Indian copyright law approaches parody, commentary, reaction videos, memes, AI voice clones, and transformative content in the digital era.The conversation explores fair dealing under Section 52 of the Indian Copyright Act, the difference between parody and satire, moral rights, use of film clips and music in online content, licensing strategies for creators, and the growing legal risks surrounding AI-generated media and deepfakes.A practical and thought provoking episode for creators, filmmakers, lawyers, podcasters, and digital media professionals navigating the evolving relationship between creativity and copyright law.

In this episode, Aditya engages with Mr Radic in a critical discussion on one of the most consequential questions shaping the future of technology and regulation; Generative AI: Competition, Collusion, or Innovation?As AI systems rapidly transform global markets, the episode explores whether existing competition law frameworks are capable of addressing the unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of dominant technology firms. The conversation examines issues surrounding access to data and compute infrastructure, AI partnerships between startups and Big Tech, self-preferencing in digital ecosystems, and the possibility of algorithmic collusion without direct human intent.The discussion also delves into the growing tensions between intellectual property rights and innovation in the AI space, particularly in relation to training data, creators’ rights, and platform governance. Drawing from global regulatory developments including the approaches of the FTC, the European Commission, and the Digital Markets Act, the episode reflects on how legal systems across jurisdictions are attempting to balance innovation, competition, and accountability in an increasingly AI-driven world.