Regulating Digital Platforms

One of the most pressing regulatory challenges of recent years has been what to do about the hugely successful digital platform and related companies which now bestride the world. Their emergence provides a brutal and urgent test for positive regulation: Can legislators and regulators maintain the benefits generated by such influential new actors, but also control the adverse effects? This chapter focuses on the challenges posed by the platforms’ abuses of their market power. It starts with an exposition of the special features of two-sided platforms which may create a heightened or special need for regulation. It then considers how these features might play out, and focuses on the risk of markets ‘tipping’ into monopolies. It then discusses how general competition law might be strengthened to keep up with the new dynamics of digital platforms and how competition law can be supplemented by additional regulatory interventions. The concluding section discusses prospects for positive regulation meeting these new challenges.