Dominant Platforms as (Quasi-)Regulators - An Economic Analysis of Competition on Platforms

Platform businesses have been pivotal in the rise of the digital economy. Amazon is one example of a platform taking on the role of a quasi-regulator; an entity that is able to determine the terms of interaction on the platform. This intermediary position entails the danger of anti-competitive behaviour by the dominant platform. Notable examples of anti-competitive behaviour include self-preferencing and the leveraging of market power into adjacent markets. This paper analyses legal and economic issues of competition on dominant platforms, using Amazon as a case study. The paper examines the role of dominant platforms as regulators of their own marketplace under the existing legal framework in a positive analysis and offers policy recommendations to adapt competition law to the challenges of the digital economy