Online Platforms and the EU Digital Single Market

Abstract

Our submission to the U.K. House of Lords, Internal Market Sub-Committee is based on our joint research, which explores the effects Big Data and technology have on competition dynamics. It reviews the use of technology to facilitate collusion, conscious parallelism, and unilateral price discrimination as well as the effects of online and mobile platforms.

Our submission addresses the following issues: • What role does data play in the business model of online platforms? • Can data-driven online platforms have excessive market power? • If so, how can they abuse this power? • If so, how does this happen and what effect does it create? • Is European competition law able adequately to address abuse by online platforms?

Keywords: Big Data, Competition, Privacy, Antitrust, Monopolization, Collusion

JEL Classification: K21, L40, L41, L42