The Antitrust Red Flags of Digital Platforms

The rise of Big Tech companies like Meta, Google and Amazon has shed light on the failure of competition or antitrust law to address the challenges posed by the rising digitalised markets. Over the last two decades, which saw the rapid digitalisation of economies, competition regulators have largely opted for a hands-off approach which has resulted in almost monopoly-like situations in the digital landscape. The main aim of the paper is to understand what constitutes a digital market and what sets these markets apart from markets as we have known them over the centuries. It further highlights some of the anti-competitive practices that may occur in such digital structures and seeks to evaluate the regulatory response to such conducts while drawing parallels to various legislations. Lastly, it strives to call attention to the urgency of the problem of big tech and anti-competitive behaviour and the need for regulatory bodies to review and modify their existing legislation in an attempt to restore some semblance of a fair market