Online Platforms and New Challenges for Modern Law on E-Commerce

This article provides a legal analysis of the nature of online platforms. The subject of the article is widely discussed among modern legal scholars since the legal nature of online platforms is very controversial: it is hard to determine the very essence of services provided by platform operators as well as to ensure fair balance of interests between platform operators and their users. The aim of the article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relationships emerging between platforms and their users and to show the main challenges brought about by online platforms for the legal regulation and for legal practice. The author starts with analyzing the notion of online platforms and their role in the transformation of modern economy. A special attention is paid on the essence of sharing economy which is considered as a product of platforms’ activity. Then the legal nature of relationships between platforms and their users is explored, i.e. operator-supplier and operator-customer relationships. In this regard, various cases concerning these relationships as well as the most recent European legal acts regulating platforms are analyzed. The main problems arising in practice of platforms’ activities are discussed and the need to provide an appropriate regulation to address them is explained.