Protecting and Fostering Online Platform Competition: The Role of Antitrust Law

Baker, Jonathan B.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3668308

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Protecting and Fostering Online Platform Competition: The Role of Antitrust Law

THE EVOLUTION OF ANTITRUST IN THE DIGITAL ERA: ESSAYS ON COMPETITION POLICY, David S. Evans, Allan Fels & Catherine Tucker, eds. Forthcoming

11 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2020 Last revised: 23 Nov 2020

See all articles by Jonathan B. Baker

Jonathan B. Baker

American University - Washington College of Law

Date Written: August 6, 2020

Abstract

This essay provides a perspective on the role of antitrust law in protecting and fostering competition in the digital economy, with particular attention to online platforms. It highlights the danger of anti-competitive exclusionary conduct by dominant online platforms and describes ways that antitrust law can challenge and deter such conduct. The essay also identifies a number of difficulties that U.S. courts and enforcers face in challenging harmful exclusionary conduct by dominant platforms, and discusses some ways regulation can supplement antitrust law in fostering competition.

JEL Classification: K21, L41

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Baker, Jonathan B., Protecting and Fostering Online Platform Competition: The Role of Antitrust Law (August 6, 2020). THE EVOLUTION OF ANTITRUST IN THE DIGITAL ERA: ESSAYS ON COMPETITION POLICY, David S. Evans, Allan Fels & Catherine Tucker, eds. Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3668308 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3668308