Blockchain and competition law - Threats and opportunities of the new disruptive technology

Sammanfattning: Blockchain has been considered the most revolutionary innovation since the implementation of the Internet. As it has started to penetrate into various industries, many foresee that this information technology has the ability to change the way business is carried across the globe. The thesis aims to address the compatibility of agreements or concerted practices between undertakings by the usage of blockchain technology in relation to article 101 of the Treaty of the Functioning of European Union. Analysing the technical mechanism of the technology and providing legal provisions relevant to the subject, the thesis demonstrate how it is not possible, a priori, to qualify the blockchain as an intrinsically pro-competitive or anti-competitive technology, without incurring in ambiguity and errors. Nevertheless, it is possible to draw conclusion on the anticompetitive opportunities that blockchain could potentially offer to its participants and the parallel enormous benefit that it could provide to society which would imply cases exemptions resulting from art 101.3 of TFEU.