Online platforms play an increasingly important role in the European business landscape. Guided by questions from the European Commission’s consultation on this topic, the paper aims to provide insight into the characteristics of online platforms and the resulting regulatory challenges. Issues...

This paper presents a multi-stakeholder approach for developing an appropriate privacy regulation in the age of big data. We develop our argument in five steps, starting (1) with a review of the current academic debate on privacy regulation. We analyze a dysfunctional mutual excludability...

Why do BigTech platforms introduce payment services? Digital platforms often run business models where activities on the platform generate data that can be monetized off the platform. There is a trade-off between the value of such data and the privacy concerns of users, since platforms need to...

This report provides an overview of the relevant economic research literature on platforms or multi-sided online markets. It discusses platforms from a regulatory policy angle, including potential market failures in platforms, the extent of self-regulation and possible regulatory responses...