Regulating Big Techs and Their Economic Power

Abstract

AbstractCompetition law enforcement has taken the lead on public intervention in digital markets, mainly due to its enforcement flexibility and ability to adapt to new market circumstances. Nevertheless, it has been perceived by many to be too slow and not completely effective. Based on these arguments, there has been a world-wide intense public policy debate on how to tackle the overall competitive and consumer issues in digital platform economy, and what could be the most effective policy for data economy. As a result, the EU Commission has proposed a few crucial policy actions, such as the Data Governance Act (DGA), the Data Act, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The latter is based on a ‘codification’ of competition case-law in order to improve enforceability by implementing ex-ante regulation, which however may not adequately consider the heterogeneity of the Core Platform Services and the different ‘gatekeeper’ platforms’ business models. Nevertheless, the DMA tackles some of the main concerns within digital markets, particularly about the use and access of data. Indeed, rules about data portability, interoperability and empowerment of end-users (also via data intermediaries) could address the main digital market failures, and progressively enable a ne[x]t neutrality future-proof approach for the entire digital ecosystem.KeywordsBig Techs’ powerCompetition LawRegulationEU digital and data PoliciesDigital Markets Act