A scientific article based on CERRE’s study “Internet Platforms & Non-Discrimination”, led by Professors Jan Krämer and Alexandre de Streel, has recently been published in ‘Telecommunications Policy’, a peer-reviewed journal specialised in the roles of information & communication technologies.
The study contribution is threefold.
1. It identifies across several platform contexts: (paid) prominence of some third parties over others and the favouring of a platform’s integrated services over independent entities as common discriminatory conducts of online platforms.
2. It reviews the economic literature, finding that discrimination in the form of paid prominence may often be in the interest of consumers. However, smaller or low-quality content providers are likely to be worse off, which gives rise to concerns regarding dynamic efficiency and long-term variety in those markets. Additional problems may arise if platform operators are vertically integrated with content providers.
Third, based on these theoretical insights, we recommend that EU policy makers should not adopt a neutrality regulation for platforms prematurely. The authors recommend imposing new proportionate transparency rules for dominant platforms in order to facilitate the identification of actual misconduct and legal enforcement.
Read the full article here.
