Digital Platforms, Competition Law, and Regulation: Comparative Perspectives

This open access book offers a comparative and inter-disciplinary perspective on the unique competition law challenges presented by the converged digital markets. Following the digitalisation of even the most traditional bricks-and-mortar sectors of the economy, a well-functioning internal market can only be guaranteed by ensuring the competitiveness of the digital markets. What role do intellectual property law and competition law play in this digital world? How can a more economic analysis strengthen innovation policies to achieve a truly competitive digital single market? The book provides a rigorous discussion of the many reasons why the regulatory responses, not just in Europe but in other jurisdictions too, may fall short. It addresses an array of procedural, substantive and other issues that are generating intense debate across the antitrust community. This includes the scope and objectives of digital regulation, whether the application of ex-ante rules would result in fragmentation and inconsistencies, and whether such regulatory regimes are an appropriate tool for substantive assessment. The book explores whether the application of these rules would effectively tackle the competition enforcement challenges seen under the competition laws, whether they can be applied without undermining other rights such as privacy, and whether they are appropriate for this digital age as well as the new digital era ahead of us. Part 1 offers a detailed inter-disciplinary perspective on the most recent legislative solutions in the European Union, namely, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the Data Act. Part 2 offers competition and regulatory responses to these ever-emerging digital challenges by the UK, Latin American, Indian and Chinese regulators.

1. Regulating Digital Platforms: Shall We, Shall We Not? Kalpana Tyagi (Maastricht University, the Netherlands) Part 1: Digitalisation and the EU's Regulatory Response 2. The Notion of Abuse: Cues from the Italian FBA Amazon Case, Federico Ghezzi (Bocconi University, Italy) and Mariateresa Maggiolino (Bocconi University, Italy) 3. The Digital Markets Act: Tailoring the Tailors, Oles Andriychuk (Newcastle University, UK) 4. Assessing Geo-blocking as a Tool to Prevent the Risk of Being Sued in EU Member States for Cross-border Copyright Infringements: A Plea for the 'Directed Activities' Approach to Jurisdiction, Birgit van Houtert (Maastricht University, the Netherlands) 5. Access to Data, Databases, and Algorithms in the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, Joanna Mazur (University of Warsaw, Poland) Part 2: Global Responses to Digitalisation 6. Are Data Spaces a 'Silver Bullet' for the EU Data Economy? Margherita Corrado (Bocconi University, Italy) and Laura Zoboli (University of Brescia, Italy) 7. Algorithmic Transparency in Rankings: Balancing Intellectual Property Rights and Disclosures in the EU and India, Pratiksha Ashok (UC Louvain, Belgium) 8. Regulating Digital Platforms: Intermediary Liability and Content Moderation in Copyright Enforcement, Subhashish Gupta (Indian Institute of Management, India) and Sneha Mehta (Associate, Netherlands) 9. Challenges to Competition and Innovation in Digital Markets: Insights from Latin American Cases, Juan David Gutiérrez (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia) and Manuel Abarca (Estudio Lewin Abogados, Chile) 10. Regulation of the Digital Markets in the UK, US and the EU: Context, Criteria, Containment, and Beyond, Mehmet Bilal Unver (University of Hertfordshire, UK) 11. Assessment of AI-enabled Price Discrimination under Competition Law in China, Qian Li (Maastricht University, the Netherlands) and Niels Philipsen (Maastricht University, the Netherlands) 12. US Competition Law in Digital Markets, Allen P Grunes (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, USA) and Rosa L Baum (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, USA) Part 3: Summary 13. Content, Competition, and Data: Ex-ante Regulation to Make Digital Markets Contestable, Kalpana Tyagi (Maastricht University, the Netherlands)