Download or read book Price Parity Clauses on Internet Platform Markets written by Holger Löhr and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Economics - Other, grade: 1,7, University of Marburg (Wirtschaftspolitik), course: Masterarbeit, language: English, abstract: Recent years have witnessed a remarkable increase in internet platform markets which have become the preferred venue of interaction amongst a growing number of buyers and sellers. The ability of the internet to enable sellers reach a greater number of consumers shows that there is a high potential for growth of the internet market, with effects on competition. Following a 2013 report by the German Antitrust Authority “Bundeskartellamt” on “Vertical Restraints on the Internet Economy”, it is clear that the internet significantly reduces transaction costs and thus increases competition to the benefit of consumers. The increase in competition among sellers, producers and retailers has led to an adoption of different forms of vertical restrictions on internet platforms which have come under the scrutiny of antitrust authorities. This thesis aims to analyze vertical restraints on internet platform markets based on the investigation of Amazon.com, Inc. by the “Bundeskartellamt” for its use of a price parity clause. This clause was introduced in Germany and in the United Kingdom in 2010 in the contract between Amazon and sellers using its platform and prohibited them from setting lower prices on other platforms, including their own websites, than the prices they set on Amazon.
Download or read book Regulating Platform Fees Under Price Parity written by Renato Gomes and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Online marketplaces, such as Amazon, or online travel agencies, such as Booking.com, greatly expand consumer information about market offers, but also raise firms' marginal costs by charging high commissions. To prevent show-rooming, platforms adopted price parity clauses, which restrict sellers' ability to offer lower prices in alternative sales channels. Whether to uphold, reform, or ban price parity has been at the center of the policy debate, but so far little consensus has emerged. In this paper, we investigate a natural alternative to lifting price parity; namely, we study how to optimally cap platforms' commissions. The optimal cap reflects the Pigouvian precept according to which the platform should not charge fees greater than the externality that its presence generates on other market participants. Employing techniques from extreme-value theory, we are able to express the optimal cap in terms of observable quantities. In an application to online travel agencies, we find that current average fees are welfare increasing only if platforms at least double consumers' consideration sets (relative to alternative ways of gathering information online). This suggests that, in some markets, regulation capping commissions should bind if optimally set.
Download or read book Antitrust in Data Driven Markets Legal Framework for Influencers Native Advertising and Control over the Use of AI in Marketing written by Bruce Kilpatrick and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-12-07 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gathers contributions from a broad range of jurisdictions, written by practitioners and academics alike, and offers an unparalleled comparative view of key issues in competition law, intellectual property and unfair competition law, with a specific focus on the use of personal data. The first part focuses on the role of competition law in shaping the digital economy. It discusses the use of personal data, the market power of platforms, the assessment of free services, and more broadly the responsibility of dominant companies in the smooth functioning of the digital economy. In turn, the second part sheds light on how the conduct of influencers, native advertising and the use of AI for marketing purposes can be controlled by the law, focusing on the use of personal data and the impact of behavioral advertising on consumers. In this regard, the book brings together the current legal responses across a number of European and other countries, all summarized and elaborated on in the form of two international reports. The LIDC is a long-standing international association that focuses on the interface between competition law and intellectual property law, including unfair competition issues.
Download or read book Platform Price Parity Clauses and Segmentation written by Joan Calzada and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We investigate how the adoption of price parity clauses (PPCs) by established platforms affects the listing decisions of suppliers. PPCs have been widely adopted by online travel agencies (OTAs) to force client hotels not to charge lower prices in alternative sales channels. We find that OTAs adopt PPCs when they are perceived as highly substitutable, and in order to prevent showrooming. PPCs allow OTAs to charge hotels higher commission fees. However, hotels can respond by delisting themselves from some OTAs. Hence, our analysis reveals that the removal of PPCs enables more hotels to resort to OTAs. This is beneficial for consumers, as prices decrease in absence of PPCs.
Download or read book Platform Investment and Price Parity Clauses written by Chengsi Wang and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Platforms use price parity clauses to prevent sellers charging lower prices when selling through other channels. Platforms justify these restraints by noting they are needed to prevent free-riding, which would undermine their incentives to invest in their platform. In this paper, we study the effect of price parity clauses on three different types of platform investment, and evaluate these restraints taking into account these investment effects. We find, that wide price parity clauses lead to excessive platform investment while without such price parity clauses there is insufficient platform investment. Even taking these investment effects into account, wide price parity clauses always lower consumer surplus and often lowers total welfare.
Download or read book Competition on the Internet written by Gintarė Surblytė and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-24 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Undeniably widespread and powerful as it is, the Internet is not almighty: it can reach as high as the skies (cloud computing), but it cannot escape competition. Yet, safeguarding competition in “the network of networks” is not without challenges: not only are competitive processes in platform-based industries complex, so is competition law analysis. The latter is often challenged by the difficulties in predicting the outcome of competition, in particular in terms of innovation. Do the specific competition law issues in a digital environment presuppose a reconsideration of competition law concepts and their application? Can current competition law tools be adjusted to the rush pace of dynamic industries? To what extent could competition law be supplemented by regulation – is the latter a foe or rather an ally? This book provides an analysis of recent developments in the most relevant competition law cases in a digital environment on both sides of the Atlantic (the EU and the US) and assesses platform competition issues from a legal as well as an economic point of view.
Download or read book Market definition and market power in the platform economy written by Jens-Uwe Franck and published by Centre on Regulation in Europe asbl (CERRE). This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the rise of digital platforms and the natural tendency of markets involving platforms to become concentrated, competition authorities and courts are more frequently in a position to investigate and decide merger and abuse cases that involve platforms. This report provides guidance on how to define markets and on how to assess market power when dealing with two-sided platforms. DEFINITION Competition authorities and courts are well advised to uniformly use a multi-markets approach when defining markets in the context of two-sided platforms. The multi-markets approach is the more flexible instrument compared to the competing single-market approach that defines a single market for both sides of a platform, as the former naturally accounts for different substitution possibilities by the user groups on the two sides of the platform. While one might think of conditions under which a single-market approach could be feasible, the necessary conditions are so severe that it would only be applicable under rare circumstances. To fully appreciate business activities in platform markets from a competition law point of view, and to do justice to competition law’s purpose, which is to protect consumer welfare, the legal concept of a “market” should not be interpreted as requiring a price to be paid by one party to the other. It is not sufficient to consider the activities on the “unpaid side” of the platform only indirectly by way of including them in the competition law analysis of the “paid side” of the platform. Such an approach would exclude certain activities and ensuing positive or negative effects on consumer welfare altogether from the radar of competition law. Instead, competition practice should recognize straightforwardly that there can be “markets” for products offered free of charge, i.e. without monetary consideration by those who receive the product. ASSESSMENT The application of competition law often requires an assessment of market power. Using market shares as indicators of market power, in addition to all the difficulties in standard markets, raises further issues for two-sided platforms. When calculating revenue shares, the only reasonable option is to use the sum of revenues on all sides of the platform. Then, such shares should not be interpreted as market shares as they are aggregated over two interdependent markets. Large revenue shares appear to be a meaningful indicator of market power if all undertakings under consideration serve the same sides. However, they are often not meaningful if undertakings active in the relevant markets follow different business models. Given potentially strong cross-group external effects, market shares are less apt in the context of two-sided platforms to indicate market power (or the lack of it). Barriers to entry are at the core of persistent market power and, thus, the entrenchment of incumbent platforms. They deserve careful examination by competition authorities. Barriers to entry may arise due to users’ coordination failure in the presence of network effect. On two-sided platforms, users on both sides of the market have to coordinate their expectations. Barriers to entry are more likely to be present if an industry does not attract new users and if it does not undergo major technological change. Switching costs and network effects may go hand in hand: consumer switching costs sometimes depend on the number of platform users and, in this case, barriers to entry from consumer switching costs increase with platform size. Since market power is related to barriers to entry, the absence of entry attempts may be seen as an indication of market power. However, entry threats may arise from firms offering quite different services, as long as they provide a new home for users’ attention and needs.
Download or read book Antitrust Analysis of Online Sales Platforms Copyright Limitations and Exceptions written by Bruce Kilpatrick and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-03 with total page 605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gathers international and national reports from across the globe on key questions in the field of antitrust and intellectual property. The first part discusses the application of competition law to online sales platforms, which is increasingly a focus for anti-trust authorities around the world. A detailed international report explores which are the major challenges for competition law generated by the growth of online platforms. It provides an excellent comparative study of this complex and challenging subject. The second part of the book gathers contributions from various jurisdictions on the topic “To what extent do current exclusions and limitations to copyright strike a fair balance between the rights of owners and fair use by private individuals and others ?" This section presents an international report, which offers an unparalleled comparative analysis of this topic, bringing together common themes and contrasting the various national provisions dealing with exceptions to copyright, amongst other things. The book also includes the resolutions passed by the General Assembly of the International League of Competition Law (LIDC) following a debate on each of these topics, which include proposed solutions and recommendations. The LIDC is a long-standing international association that focuses on the interface between competition law and intellectual property law, including unfair competition issues.
Download or read book Natural Monopolies in Digital Platform Markets written by Francesco Ducci and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-23 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Competition policy debates on digital platform markets are often premised on the idea that market fragmentation and the standard forces of competition and entry may provide a potential solution to excessive concentration and market power. In this work, Francesco Ducci provides readers with a different perspective based on the theoretical lens of natural monopoly. Ducci explores this framework through the development of three case studies on horizontal search, e-commerce marketplaces, and ride-hailing platforms, investigating the strength and limit of potential (and often heterogeneous) sources of natural monopoly at play in each industry. Building on these case studies, the book then derives from the application of the natural monopoly framework general policy implications for digital industries by identifying the respective institutional flaws and shortcomings of ex ante and ex post approaches to market power as one of the central challenges in digital platform markets.
Download or read book Competition written by Anna Olimpia and published by Editora Singular. This book was released on 2023-11-08 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The proliferation of economic agents with market power, especially those operating in the digital economy and which add unprecedented dynamic and complexity to it, has sparked heated discussions among academics, professionals, and competition authorities around the world regarding the effects of their actions on the market and consumers. Unlike classic cartels – a conduct that has been treated as per se unlawful in Brazil, regardless of the production of effects under Brazilian competition law – unilateral conduct falls into a gray area, encompassing different practices with different effects on the market. In this sense, examples of unilateral conduct that may be considered anticompetitive are numerous, both under old and new labels: predatory pricing, abusive pricing, resale price maintenance, imposition of exclusivities, parity clauses, price discrimination, discrimination of commercial conditions (self-preferencing), price squeeze, refusal to deal, among others. The competition analysis of such conduct – which may occur in traditional "brick and mortar" markets as well as in digital environments involving various platforms and arrangements like blockchain – for the purpose of a decision by the authority on whether they constitute anticompetitive practices or not, involves a highly complex analysis of various factors. The analysis must consider the presence of dominant positions, real or potential detrimental effects on competition, efficiencies, justifications, economic rationale for the conduct, and, for some schools of thought, a weighing of anticompetitive effects and efficiencies. Due to the complexity, specificities, and dynamism of unilateral practices, especially in digital markets or hybrid digital platforms, there is a question of whether the instruments currently available to competition authorities are sufficient to understand and rule on such practices. In this regard, the analysis of various cases in relatively recent jurisprudence shows a pursuit for new forms of interpretation and application, and even updates, to the methodologies of analysis and of applicable legislation, in order to strike a balance between intervention to curb anticompetitive practices to the extent necessary for protecting competition, without resulting on undue interference in the involved markets or on disincentives to innovation. Historically, discussions about exclusivity clauses and resale price maintenance have been central in this type of investigation, but digital platforms are effectively changing this landscape, giving rise to discussions on new types of conduct or more sophisticated forms of implementing traditional types of conduct, which have become possible or potentially more serious through new technologies, the broad reach of platforms, the collection of massive data, and the international nature of the largest players in these markets. Notions of relevant market, theories of harm, and standards of consumer welfare or protection traditionally adopted by antitrust authorities are under study and may be revised. The heterogeneity of legal systems in different jurisdictions is another complicating factor for national authorities in the analysis of conduct practiced by companies with market power internationally. All these analyses are present in the 25 articles written for this publication by IBRAC. We have articles focused on traditional methods of analysis in traditional markets, as well as articles addressing new trends and recent discussions in digital markets and platforms. In times of pandemic and economic crisis, as expected, approaches to prices and pricing strategies are recurring themes in the works compiled here.
Download or read book E Commerce Competition ASEAN Economic Integration written by Cassey Lee and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2019-10-10 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The e-commerce market has grown rapidly within the ASEAN region in recent years. This trend is expected to continue in the future given the region’s large population base, rising middle-class and improvements in connectivity. This edited volume examines the current state of e-commerce in ASEAN countries. It highlights some of the key domestic and cross-border challenges faced by ASEAN member states in developing e-commerce. These challenges include the regulatory and legal environment in which e-commerce firms operate across ASEAN, and the supporting infrastructure in ASEAN member states. “A comprehensive snapshot of the latest emerging regulatory, policy and consumer issues. It’s essential reading for anyone working in this field. E-commerce is fundamentally altering the way in which businesses are being conducted, both within and between ASEAN countries. More than just an alternate distribution channel, online trading offers new opportunities and challenges for consumers, businesses, regulators and policymakers. How do markets operate in the new paradigm? How should regulators and governments ensure that dynamic competitive economies evolve, instead of descending into anti-competitive structures? And how are markets evolving in different parts of Southeast Asia? All of these issues—and much more—are discussed in here. The editors are to be congratulated for assembling a range of insightful perspectives from across ASEAN. These are issues that will affect the region for many years to come. The lessons here are timely and timeless.” —Michael Schaper Ph.D., Deputy Chairman, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2008–18
Download or read book Competition Law in India written by Abir Roy and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2024-03-12 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last few years, the Competition Commission of India has been extremely assertive in its enforcement outlook, especially in the digital markets. Additionally, the relevance of competition law in India continues to grow in importance as investment activity increases. This comprehensive, practical guide outlines the highly distinctive manner in which competition law is interpreted in this major global market. Highlighting the key aspects of Indian competition law, a leading competition law practitioner describes elements of Indian competition law encompassing the following: the dual regulatory-judicial nature of the Competition Commission; investigatory powers of the Commission’s Director General; mandated business conduct policies (e.g., active risk management procedures); availability of sanctions, remedies, and private actions; cartels and leniency programmes; extraterritorial application of the Competition Commission; merger review; pricing and non-pricing abuse; approach in digital markets; appeal process; fines – companies, directors and officers; fines for non-cooperation or furnishing false information; and liability of state-owned enterprises. Analysis of numerous leading cases decided by the Indian competition authorities enhances the book’s practical value. This comprehensive guide provides an incomparable overview of practice in a key jurisdiction that is increasingly becoming one of the most important in the international recognition and enforcement of competition law. As a guide to the ‘landscape’ of competition law in India, it has no peers. The book will be of inestimable value to professionals in this area of legal practice, whether in law firms, corporations, academia, government or the judiciary, as well as to investors, economists and business executives.
Download or read book VBER 2022 EU Competition Law for Vertical Agreements written by Benedikt Rohrßen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-10-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book tackles the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation ("VBER"). The VBER 2022 is the new playbook in Europe for vertical agreements. Vertical agreements, i.e. between parties from different levels of the production or distribution chain, are ubiquitous in the EU economy. Vertical agreements which appreciably restrict competition are, in principle, void, and subject to fines. By exception, agreements may already fall outside the scope of competition law or may be exempt if their pro-competitive effects prevail. Whether they do or not requires an individual assessment of each agreement, with respective legal uncertainty. The VBER, however, is the shortcut to legally certain vertical agreements because it exempts groups of vertical agreements from the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements. It therefore builds the practical core of distribution law. Only understanding and implementing the VBER ensures a compliant distribution set-up. This goes for all kinds of vertical agreements, especially: digital, dual, exclusive and selective distribution plus franchise. The VBER 2022 is intended to take into account market developments, in particular the strong growth in e-commerce. Digitalisation has reinforced the trend toward verticalization – and thus toward dual distribution. The VBER 2022 now "reboots" the existing playbook, making it fit for digital distribution. And this book shall help – as a shortcut to understanding the VBER – to quickly and easily pass the transition to the new rules. This book is written from the distribution / contract drafting perspective. It is born out of the author’s practice as German attorney-at-law and partner in the international law firm Taylor Wessing. This book aims at providing private practitioners, in-house counsels as well as officers within authorities and judges practical guidance on the “rebooted” competition law regime in the European Union, including many examples of provisions to be used, especially in distribution and franchise agreements. It also tables and checklists for creating new and adapting existing agreements to the VBER. This book has been written while accompanying the reform discussions and the introduction of the VBER 2022 as an author, speaker and private practitioner.
Download or read book New Developments in Competition Law and Economics written by Klaus Mathis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-18 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book further develops both the traditional and the behavioural approach to competition law, and applies these approaches to a variety of timely issues. It discusses several fundamental questions regarding competition law and economics, and explores the applications of competition law and economics. In turn, the book analyses the interplay of intellectual property rights and patents in various aspects of competition law, and investigates the impacts that developments in information technology, such as big data analytics, have on competition law. The book also discusses the impact of energy law reforms on energy markets from a competition law perspective. Competition law is a classic field of economic analysis. This is largely due to the fact that competition law uses terms such as market, price, and competition and must therefore rely on economic know-how and analyses. In the United States, economic analysis has greatly influenced not just the scholarship on antitrust law, but also judicial decisions and agency enforcement. Antitrust law and economics are based on the traditional paradigm of neoclassical economics, which relies on the assumption that the market players, i.e. consumers and producers, are rational. This approach to competition law was later received in Europe under the banner of a “more economic approach”. For the past two decades, behavioural law and economics, which seeks to generate better insights into legal phenomena by providing more realistic psychological foundations for economic models, and to offer a multitude of applications in legislation and legal adjudication, has challenged the traditional economic approach to law in general and, more recently, to competition law specifically.
Download or read book Digital Competition Law in Europe written by Marc Wiggers and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2023-07-14 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Digital competition’, a term and concept that has risen to the forefront of competition law, may be viewed as both promising and cautionary: on the one hand, it brings the promises of increased speed, efficiency and objectivity, and, on the other, it entails potential pitfalls such as hard-to-identify pathways to unfair pricing, dominant positions and their potential abuse, restriction of choice and abuse of personal data. Accordingly, jurisdictions around the world are taking measures to deal with the phenomenon. In this concise but thoroughly researched book – both informative and practical – lawyers from two prominent firms with specialised digital competition teams take stock and examine the state of digital competition in the enforcement practices of six competition authorities in Europe, most of these forerunners in the field of digital competition policy and enforcement. The competition authorities surveyed are those of the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. For each, an overview, spanning the period from 2012 to mid-2022 but including as many landmark cases as possible up to and including December 2022, includes not only landmark cases in which digital technologies have had a significant impact on the competition law outcome but also guidance documents such as speeches, policy statements, industry surveys and research reports. Activities and enforcement practices of the various authorities include the following and more: degree of activity; focus of the activity; enforcement styles; enforcement instruments; visible effectiveness of enforcement; and important insights and outlooks. Each overview contains separate chapters on cartel prohibition, the prohibition of abuse of a dominant position and merger control. Additional chapters – partially written by guest authors (who are all without a doubt true thought leaders: Tristan Byrne, Giuseppe Colangelo, Ai Deng, Teodora Groza, Daniel Mândrescu, Wolf Sauter, Thibault Schrépel, and Gareth Shier) – evaluate the similarities and differences in the enforcement practices and the positive and negative effects of digital competition in the jurisdictions investigated, the economic context, the most important game changers, and a concluding chapter offers recommendations. An indispensable guide to quickly and accessibly acquiring in-depth knowledge of competition law in the digital sector, this matchless volume is a must-read for any practitioner or academic who encounters competition law related to digital markets. The dilemmas and challenges of the new competition law reality – which is here already, like it or not – are clearly explained here for the benefit of regulators, academics, policymakers, judges, in-house counsel and lawyers specialising in competition law and intellectual property law.
Download or read book The Roles of Innovation in Competition Law Analysis written by Paul Nihoul and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rapid technological innovations have challenged the conventional application of antitrust and competition law across the globe. Acknowledging these challenges, this original work analyses the roles of innovation in competition law analysis and reflects on how competition and antitrust law can be refined and tailored to innovation.
Download or read book Competition Law s Innovation Factor written by Viktoria H S E Robertson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-06 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, market definition has come under attack as an analytical tool of competition law. Scholars have increasingly questioned its usefulness and feasibility. That criticism comes into sharper relief in dynamic, innovation-driven markets, which do not correspond to the static markets on which the concept of the relevant market was modelled. This book explores that controversy from a comparative legal perspective, taking into account both EU competition and US antitrust law. It examines the manifold ways in which courts and competition authorities in the EU and US have factored innovation-related considerations into market delineation, covering: innovative product markets, product differentiation, future markets, issues going beyond market definition proper – such as innovation competition, innovation markets and potential competition –, intellectual property rights, innovative aftermarkets and multi-sided platforms. This book finds that going forward, the role of market definition in dynamic contexts needs to focus on its function of market characterisation rather than on the assessment of market power.
