John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition, 23rd Edition (2024-2025)

Team and Result

For the eleventh consecutive time, the University of Zurich was represented by a dedicated team at the 23rd edition of the renowned John H. Jackson Moot Court Regional Round in Amsterdam. There, the team, consisting of Nataliia Rudenko, Aurelia Büchel, Tobias Müller and Wiktoria Gaedig (from left to right), won the award for the best written submission for Complainant. Although the team narrowly missed out on reaching the world final in Geneva this year, the Moot Court was an enriching experience for the four students.

The Case

This year's case (PDF, 2 MB) centres on a trade dispute between Alabasta and Wano concerning Alabasta's Digital Economy Law (DEL) and associated regulations impacting electronic goods and digital services. The dispute centres on Alabasta's requirement that streaming platforms carry 30% local content, its data localisation requirements for foreign acquisitions of audiovisual content providers and the various competition law enforcement actions taken by the Digital Markets Authority (DMA) against Wegapunk, a major Wano-based company that operates the Wega-Flix streaming service and produces Wega-Pad tablets. Wano claims that these measures, alongside tariff increases on tablet computers, violate GATS Articles II and XVII and GATT Article XI by systematically restricting imports and discriminating against foreign service providers. Alabasta defends its measures as legitimate policies for the protection of culture and consumers, arguing that they are justified under the exceptions in GATS Article XIV and GATT Article XX.

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