The Supreme Court’s 2018 American Express (“Amex”) decision was its first involving two-sided platforms since the emergence of platform economics. As the Internet continues to facilitate the growth of two-sided...

Natascha Gerlach, Director of Privacy Policy · Centre for Information Policy Leadership Brussels, November 2023

By Tanaya Sethi1 & Raagini Agarwal2   The Open Network for Digital Commerce (“ONDC”) was launched in India in 2022. A network which started with pilot projects in a few...

We consider how textbook economic techniques should be applied in online advertising markets. We argue that the necessary conditions for revealed preference theory fail for most advertisers, due to incentive misalignments, ambiguity about available advertising opportunities, and fundamental challenges in estimating causal advertising effects. We also argue that some advertisers’ choices may reveal preferences, particularly […]

It is widely assumed that platform technology markets are inherently prone to monopoly outcomes in which a single firm or a handful of firms enjoy market power due to network effects and switching costs.  This assumption supports dramatic changes, both proposed and enacted, to the application of competition and antitrust law in platform markets.  Remarkably, […]

While advances in economic theory, econometrics and data availability have helped antitrust authorities to fine-tune their approach to market definition in traditional brick and mortar markets, new economic insights have upended the applicability of the very same market definition tools in (digital) platform markets. We briefly discuss five complications laid bare by developments in the […]

In April 2020, the European Commission launched the review of the Market Definition Notice (MDN), which had remained unaltered since its adoption in 1997. Among the novelties in the revised “Draft MDN” as published in November 2022 is additional guidance in relation to market definition in digital markets, such as multi-sided markets, aftermarkets, and digital […]

The recent AMEX decision has introduced the economics of “multisided platforms,” “transaction platforms,” “indirect network effects,” and “two-sided analysis” into antitrust analysis. As is often the case, sometimes such descriptive words precede any precise, scientific definition. In this brief note, we will explore some generally accepted concepts, how they relate to measures of market power, […]

In competition law, how to define markets in the context of two-sided platforms is a hot topic. Drawing on the judgment of the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal in BGL/Comparethemarket v. Competition and Markets Authority, we address some of the main questions and misunderstandings about multi-sided market definition.

The Bundeskartellamt has designated Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon as 19a firms. Thus, they are potentially subject to specific competition law interventions under a special procedure. In these three designation decisions, market definition plays an important role. This article points to several noteworthy aspects that concern market definition. In all decisions the authority focuses on one […]

While the term “platform” is ubiquitous in everyday language, its precise definition in the context of topics related to competition, policy and antitrust still remains ambiguous. This arguably for technical reasons which are trivial to grasp but seemingly difficult to communicate en masse. When political leaders take aim at regulating “platforms,” precisely which types of […]

Dear Readers, In this August edition of the TechREG® Chronicle, we host a selection of articles from our esteemed Editorial Advisory Board. This set of contributions opens with a TechREG® Talks discussion between  Philip Marsden & Jacqueline Downes, moderated by Katharine Kemp. The panelists discuss the pressing issues facing legislators, regulators and litigants throughout the […]