Regulation of the Digital Market in Post-COVID Times

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of e-business and the digital economy came to the fore. It is certain that the growth of the digital economy will continue in postCOVID times. This raises many questions and challenges, one of which is especially important – the tendency of monopolisation in the digital market and possible regulation related to it. In this paper, the authors have dealt with this topic by presenting it as paradox: digital giants or ‘Big Tech’, created as start-ups on the waves of a competitive market of equal opportunities, have grown with the general support of consumers because their platforms offer connectivity and a more comfortable and interesting life full of creativity. In the meantime, they have become unstoppable monopolists making users/consumers dependent and subordinate with their privacy endangered. In the paper, the authors reveal the reasons for the monopolisation of the digital market as well as related problems faced by regulators. In addition, they analysed some of the approaches that individual countries are trying to apply, and suggest a possible scenario for how to reach quality and stable solutions for regulation at the global level.