Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Sector Regulation of Digital Platforms in Europe: Uno, Nessuno e Centomila

2021; Oxford University Press; Volume: 12; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jeclap/lpab046

2041-7772

Marco Botta,

Digital Platforms and Economics

In 1926, Luigi Pirandello published Uno, Nessuno e Centomila, one of his most well-known novels.1 The book discusses the identity crisis faced by Vitangelo Moscarda, who wonders whether he has either a single (i.e. uno) or no identity (i.e. nessuno), or whether he has a different identity vis-a-vis every person around him (i.e. centomila—100,000 identities). One century after the publication of Pirandello’s masterpiece, the European Union is also facing a major identity crisis. Europe is currently wondering how to react to several major challenges, such as Brexit, COVID-19, climate change, as well as the advent of the digital economy. The identity crisis currently faced by Europe in relation to the digital economy is the focus of the present paper. ... In recent years, a number of experts reports have observed that antitrust enforcement is not suitable to tackle the peculiarities of the digital economy.2 First of all, the reports have pointed out that competition policy is too slow, due to the lengthy investigations by the competition agencies and the following judicial review. Intel3 and Microsoft4 legal sagas are good examples of this general problem in competition law enforcement; an issue that is particularly problematic in the digital economy, characterized by a high degree of innovation and rapid evolution of the business models. Secondly, most of the reports agree that traditional antitrust remedies, such as a fine coupled with a cease-and-desist order, do not have a sufficient deterrent effect vis-à-vis the tech giants’ market behavior, and they are not suitable to tackle the complexities of digital markets.5