Platform economy breaks into the legal profession by pooling lawyers with different specializations into a simple user-friendly platform, consolidating the lower-tier supply side of the legal market and generating economy of scale. This paper is the very first empirical piece looking into...

This paper describes the different forces that shape the market structure of four different "online platform ecosystems" and the competition between them. The paper focuses on the following categories of platforms, which represent a wide scope of online activities: (i) e-commerce marketplaces;...

This report presents evidence on the relationship between online platforms and businesses using these platforms to reach consumers or conduct their operations. First, we review the literature on vertical relationships both from a classic approach and from a multi-sided market perspective....

The U.S. in the recent United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement adopts a new clause which mirrors Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, shielding online intermediaries from third-party contents liability. For policymakers, the seemingly...

Decentralised finance (DeFi) represents an extremely interesting and continuously growing area of the financial sector. The present paper analyses varied types of digital platforms, expression of different degrees of decentralisation/disintermediation, focusing on capital raising ones since...

Third-party platforms, intermediaries in the financing proposition offered by crowdfunding, assume various risks in undertaking that intermediation role, including the risk that legal actions may be brought against them by those seeking funding and the funders they attract. This litigation risk...

Crowdfunding has been regarded as a useful tool to meet consumers’ and SMEs’ financing needs as well as investors’ need for diversified alternative investments finance and desire for a more ‘democratic’ financial system. It has also been presented as a form of ‘disintermediated’...