Introduction: Online Market Places as Private Governance Systems and ‘balloon Effects’ in Private Law

CEPRI Studies on Private Governance, Issue 8/2023 – Special Issue on Platforms as Private Governance Systems

12 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2023 Last revised: 13 Sep 2023

See all articles by Vibe Ulfbeck

Vibe Ulfbeck

University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Law

Date Written: September 6, 2023

Abstract

When online market places started appearing some 20 years ago, it was an explicit goal of the EU to support this type of business as an instrument to facilitate cross border trade. For this reason, rules were put in place to make the establishment of online market places attractive. A central element in this regard was the rule in the E-commerce directive (ECD) which as a general principle exempts platforms from liability for the acts and omission of the users of the platform as long as the platform is only a passive provider of the digital infrastructure. The strategy was successful. Over the past two decades, online trade has increased massively. Today, one million European businesses are selling goods and services on online platforms. Online market places provide goods of all kinds, transport, housing, investments, loans, etc. and the COVID crisis only reinforced the popularity of this way of trading.

Suggested Citation

Ulfbeck, Vibe, Introduction: Online Market Places as Private Governance Systems and ‘balloon Effects’ in Private Law (September 6, 2023). CEPRI Studies on Private Governance, Issue 8/2023 – Special Issue on Platforms as Private Governance Systems , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4563626 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4563626

Vibe Ulfbeck (Contact Author)

University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Law ( email )

Karen Blixens Plads 16
Copenhagen, DK-2300
Denmark

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