Bundling in Internetmärkten : ökonomische Besonderheiten, Wettbewerbseffekte und Regulierungsimplikationen

The bundling of different products at a reduced price is a common strategy in traditional markets to sell products to consumers. In comparison with traditional markets, internet markets exhibit some economic peculiarities, such as the theory of multisided markets or the economics of personalized data. Considering the economic peculiarities, the objective of this thesis is to find out in which forms bundling in internet markets occurs and which competitive effects as well as impacts on the overall welfare it entails. Finally, regulatory implications for the handling with bundling in internet markets are determined. For this purpose, five different case types are developed and their specific welfare effects analyzed. Subsequently, two actual cases of bundling, the Google case and the AT&T and Time Warner case, are practically examined. The result of the thesis shows both positive and negative welfare-changing effects within different areas. As the consumers of the content can often generate an advantage from bundling, competitors are often disadvantaged by the shift of market power in favor of the bundler. The negative welfare effects are particularly strong with already existing dominant positions on the part of the bundler. Therefore, it is necessary to weighing the advantages against the disadvantages in individual cases.