Digital platform regulatory challenges - is history repeating itself? (original) (raw)
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Digital Platforms -The New Network Industries? How to regulate them
Network Industries Quarterly, 2019
Following the 8th Conference on Regulation of Infrastructures, which took place on June 20 and 21, 2019 with a particular focus on the key challenges of digitalisation for traditional network industries in the transport, telecoms, water and energy sectors, four papers were selected for this publication due to their topical relevance. This special issue opens with an introductory article by the Members of the Scientific Committee of the conference, Professors of the Florence School of Regulation, Montero and Finger, who consider digital platforms as the new network industries and explore the network effects created by platforms. Fuentes et al. looks at the electricity sector, which is navigating major disruptions that are changing the regulatory and business landscape. The paper addresses whether these changes would help or hinder electrification, taking transportation as an example. Becchis, Postiglione and Valerio examine how platforms are giving rise to a series of regulatory challenges, with a focus on their legal definition, labour-related issues in the digital sphere and the role of data between privacy protection and competition. Knieps analyses the problem of division of labour among all-IP broadband network providers, virtual network service providers and platform operators concomitant with the implementation of adequate governance structures. Ducuing analyses the phenomenon, when several (contemplated) data sharing legal regimes appear to essentially recognise and regulate data as an infrastructure, although without explicit reference to this notion. Her research is based on three cases, namely the Open Data and PSI Directive, the on-going institutional discussion on the governance of in-vehicle data and the freshly adopted regulation of data in the Electricity Directive.
Digital Platforms: Has the Time come for Competition Regulation?
CCP Research Bulletin, 2016
Digital platforms are not only seizing growth, but they are also redefining the internet economy in such a way that it upsets the current competition landscape. In this article, we discuss various aspects of digital platforms. By highlighting the traits that differ digital platforms from conventional business models, we aim to show that these new unconventional economies do not clearly appear on the radar of conventional market regulations. Thus, the time has arrived for the introduction of new market regulations for digital platforms.
What People Leave Behind. Marks, Traces, Footprints and their Relevance to Knowledge Society, 2022
Recent years have witnessed an increasing amount of research and interest in the complex matter of digital platforms, which has been examined from diverse and multiple academic perspectives. The phenomenon of platformisation, defined as the penetration of infrastructures, economic processes and governmental frameworks of digital platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of existence, as well as the reorganisation of cultural practices and imaginations around these platforms (Poell et al., 2019), still represents a complex and deeply investigated subject, with visible repercussions on many aspects of public and private life. A concrete example is the widespread diffusion of globally operating platform businesses—from Facebook to Google, to Amazon, etc.—that are becoming increasingly central to public and private life, transforming key economic sectors and spheres of life. Following the evolution and the increasing significance of platforms and digital intermediaries, institutions have been focusing their attention and their policymaking more and more on the issue of data and digital transition, which requires digital governance to adapt to each country’s regulatory culture and capacity, as well as understanding that these structures will continue to change over time (OECD, 2019:147). In this context, at least 73 countries worldwide have adopted a digital strategy or plan (ITU, 2020:3), while another recent trend is for countries to adopt strategies tailored to specific technologies or issues, such as automation, robotics, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). At the EU level, the latest Proposal of Regulation (EC)2020/825 on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act, DSA) represents the culmination of a long-standing regulatory process that, over the years, has touched on numerous issues related to digital regulation. Particular attention has been paid to the implications for democratic stability caused by the extensive power of digital platforms and intermediaries: in the document published in 2020 by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, “Technology and Democracy: understanding the influence of online technologies on political behaviour and decision-making”, causal connections are established between how platforms work and how fundamental rights online are impacted. The research highlights how automated newsfeeds and recommendation systems are designed to maximise the attention and engagement of users by satisfying their alleged preferences, which may mean giving relevance to polarising and misleading content. All these subjects—data-driven performances, data-agile economies and services, content’s ranking and recommendation systems—are linked by a common component: algorithms. Understanding algorithms, their role and functions in our digital world, the possible repercussions of their being more and more at the centre of the co-production of meaning in our society, is a key challenge of our times. The algorithmic power is transversal to many areas of life, and a single lens cannot magnify all of its complexity: a multidisciplinary approach can fruitfully help understand this all-encompassing phenomenon. On the one hand, we need to understand the meaning of the “power of algorithms”: how does it concretely work, how it is related to platform performance and what are the possible implications, especially in terms of real interference with human knowledge and perception of reality. On the other hand, we will be examining the “counteractions” set out in the European regulation: how it has been developing over time and how algorithms have become increasingly central to the debate, subsequently highlighting the importance of algorithmic transparency and accountability. We will be looking at how lawmaking—in particular the European legal framework for AI—is trying to intercept that same algorithmic power and establish new benchmarks for transparency. In conclusion, we will assess how the most recent regulation proposal addresses the matter and what are the criticalities that might occur.
Competition and Challenges in the Context of Internet Platforms in the Digital Age
The size and power of Internet companies has been considered a threat to healthy markets and democratic values. This article discusses how the dynamics of digital markets give rise to specific antitrust issues that require updating the Competition Policy Toolkit. The central argument is that in view of such challenges the hard core of competition law should be implemented and developed in the light of new values. In particular, competition policy should consider concerns related to data security and privacy in order to better explain competition in digital markets, and to improve the application of anti-people legislation and the development of public competition policies.
Data control and digital regulatory space(s): towards a new European approach
2015
Abstract:Data control, among the newest forms of power fostered by information and communication technologies (ICTs), triggers a continuous (re)negotiation of public and private orderings, with direct implications on both regulators and intermediaries. This article examines the stance of the European Union (EU) regarding the position of Google- the world’s largest internet services company as per its 2014 market value- in two controversial instances: the ‘right to be forgotten ’ and the implementation of EU competition rules. It provides an analysis of these evolving debates and their meaning for EU regulatory thrust more broadly, discussing the shift in the approach to digital markets and the proactive development of a European framework influential beyond continental boundaries.
Webinar “ Regulating Digital Platforms : Where Do We Stand ?
2021
CONTENT. 1. The webinar and its subject – 2. The British Proposal – 3. The German Competition Act and its new 19a section – 4. A critical analysis of the EU Digital Markets Act – 5. The practice of self-preferencing between competition and regulation – 6. Conclusions *Law Graduate, Roma Tre University. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS