This paper presents a broad retrospective evaluation of mergers and merger decisions in the digital sector. We first discuss the most crucial features of digital markets such as network effects, multi-sidedness, big data, and rapid innovation that create important challenges for competition...

In 2019, there was a notable ramping up in the international focus around competition issues in digital platform markets, with the publication of expert policy reports in several jurisdictions. There are many similarities across these various reports, including a general recognition that digital...

The FTC completed its antitrust investigation of Google in 2013 and, finding no evidence of antitrust violations, decided not to bring an enforcement action against the company. Although the FTC has concluded its investigation, Google’s competitors and critics, unhappy with the outcome,...

This paper considers the possibilities that the member states of the WTO would adopt some kind of antitrust provision. Initially, the paper reviews the historical relation of competition policy to trade policy, from the Havana Conference to the present. It then reviews the conflicts between the...

This paper outlines the modern industrial organization theory of media markets including competition policy implications. After recapturing fundamentals of industrial organization theory in a non-technical way, the state of the art of (i) modern platform economics, (ii) the economics of the...

This paper presents a broad retrospective evaluation of mergers and merger decisions in the digital sector. We first discuss the most crucial features of digital markets such as network effects, multi-sidedness, big data, and rapid innovation that create important challenges for competition...

The pace at which markets are evolving, thanks to the accelerated adoption of digital technologies, poses important challenges to competition law and its enforcement. This work aims to support this process by building an understanding of the experiences of competition authorities in deciding on...

Plattformen sind mehr als Unternehmen, sie sind die Herrschaftszentren unserer Zeit. Facebook, Google und Amazon ersetzen Marktplätze und öffentlichen Räume, doch sie entscheiden darüber, wer sich dort aufhalten darf und welche Regeln gelten. Von Staaten sind sie kaum zu kontrollieren, sie...

"Daten sind das Öl des 21. Jahrhunderts" - dieser im Kontext der Datenökonomie häufig zitierte Satz weist auf die enorme Kapitalverschiebung hin, die innerhalb der letzten Jahre stattgefunden hat: Internet-Giganten wie Amazon, Google, Alibaba, Apple, Microsoft, Tencent und Facebook sind...