Dominant or apparently dominant internet platform increasingly become subject to both antitrust investigations and further-reaching political calls for regulation. While Google is currently in the focus of the discussion, the next candidate is already on the horizon – the ubiquitous online...

The European Commission’s Statement of Objections forms the latest addition to the ongoing debate on the possible misuse of Google’s position in the search engine market. The scholarly debate, however, has largely been over the exclusionary effects of search degradation. Less attention has...

In its investigation into Google’s search practices, Google Search, the Commission alleges that Google abuses its dominant position on the web search market by giving systematic favourable treatment to its “comparison shopping product” (namely, “Google Shopping”) in its general search...

The impressive growth of online shopping has had a significant impact on firms’ strategies and customer behavior, bringing to the fore new forms of trademark exploitation that may affect competition. A prominent role is played by keyword advertising services provided by internet search...

Probably not. Or, at least, it is a sui generis two-sided market. Unlike other platforms, such as credit cards, night clubs, or operating systems, where a single transaction is performed via the platform (trade, date or using a PC), two different transactions take place on Google. Users look for...

In Google Shopping, the General Court took a giant leap forward. Remarkably, it held that the general principle of equal treatment, as a general principle of EU law, applies in the context of Article 102 TFEU for dominant undertakings. Based on this finding, it reframed the European Commission...

The first part of this paper focuses on competition between search engines that match user queries with webpages. User welfare, as measured by click-through rates on top-ranked pages, increases when network effects attract more users and generate economies of scale in data aggregation. However,...

The U.S. federal government has brought major antitrust cases against Microsoft and Google. Regulators likely don’t expect to win either case outright, but the government doesn’t need to win these cases for them to have an impact. For one, an aggressive litigation strategy can provide a...

Within the last three years, Google has acquired YouTube and DoubleClick and has attempted to control part of Yahoo!'s search advertising business. Two of the deals have not raised antitrust concerns by competition authorities. I review these deals with a focus on consumer welfare. Consumers are...

This paper examines the impact of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on consumer behavior, focusing on changes in Google's search result presentation in the European Union (EU). Specifically, it investigates the effects of Google's removal of clickable maps in search results, a modification...