Developing a legal framework to assess the market power of digital platforms
Tara-Kate Taylor
Competition and Consumer Law Journal
Tara-Kate Taylor, ‘Developing a legal framework to assess the market power of digital platforms’ (2022) 29 Competition and Consumer Law Journal 136
Abstract
By undermining the power of traditional news broadcasters and providing a voice to individuals, digital platforms have transformed the social and economic landscape of society. However, the dominance of digital platforms and their unique operations have also raised concerns regarding the firms’ ‘gatekeeping’ functions and their potential to cause new forms of consumer harm. Competition law is viewed as a regulatory tool that can be utilised to govern the conduct of digital platforms and protect consumers in the digital era. However, due to its emphasis on traditional markets and its inability to adapt to processes of digitisation, the law is currently of limited effectiveness. This article draws upon existing literature to develop a two-tiered model, which can be used to assess effectiveness of the law in governing digital platform conduct. It analyses the relevance of competition law policy objectives in the digital platform context, the effectiveness of legal principles and proposes reforms. It concludes that whilst ideologically competition law is a suitable means to regulate digital platforms, a more holistic approach to regulation is required, which extends beyond the competition law regime.