Competition Law Issues in the Online World

Abstract

During the last few years, internet-related legal issues have increasingly moved to the attention of competition authorities. One reason for their growing interest might be seen in the fact that internet markets are technical and fast moving markets whose characteristics make them particularly vulnerable to big players with big market shares.

Therefore, most of the complaints and investigations in internet markets are based on unlawful monopolistic conduct. When applying the competition law in these cases, the special characteristics of the internet markets should be considered. Doing this, new approaches might have to be taken into account, in particular with regard to the market delineation and the assessment of market power.