Abstract of my talk at Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics: Innovation, Competition and Market Power on the Net

This presentation addresses the application of the competition law to the so called Internet economy. It covers the characteristics of Internet and the role of innovation in the configuration of competition policy, and includes a brief examination of legislation, case law and the academic literature relating to the so called information society and Internet economy concepts. The aim of the presentation is to integrate in our analysis to some extent the three disciplines of law, business administration and economics, and the study of the nexuses between IP law and innovation, copyright law and creativity, and market transparency.

The Internet economy is not limited to digital products and services, but can change markets for physical goods as well. Furthermore, Internet economy may create entirely new monopolistic effects. Control over standards and network effects are essential and change the traditional market dynamics. For instance, under a proprietary standard, an industry may be dominated by a single firm. With an open standard, many firms can interconnect.

The author acknowledges that the antitrust law provides a powerful framework for evaluating regulatory approaches to the Internet. Nevertheless, the new reality of the Information Society and the Internet economy modify the basic theoretical grounds of the current approach and requires fresh legal and economic thinking to progress in line with technology development. Hence, there is a need for reconsider the analytical tools used to study the Internet economy environment. It challenges, among others, concepts such as market analysis, the market power assessment, and the role of technology and its interface with the law. Moreover the operational framework of antitrust is not totally adequate; antitrust enforcement authorities lack focus on technology and, above all, of the necessary resources. The presentation propose some responses to the above referred issues.