Online Platforms, Innovation and Competition in the EU - Explaining Europe’s Hostility Towards Modern Platform Businesses

Modern online platforms are a market-driven cure to the imperfections of the EU’s incomplete Single Market. The ascent of the platform economy has been a boon for the European economy. And yet, all the big and famous digital platforms have probably got the message by now: European policymakers don’t like them very much.

Given this context, we would like to discuss the following questions:

• What is the economic impact of online platforms in the EU?

• What explains EU policymakers’ hostility against modern digital platforms?

• Should online platforms be considered a threat to marketplace competition in the EU?

• Are online platforms overly exposed to rent-seeking activities?

• And are policymakers actually right in defending old approaches of regulation in the light of dynamic markets?

Please join a conversation with Fredrik Erixon, Director, ECIPE, Matthias Bauer, Senior Economist, ECIPE, David Jevons, Partner, Oxera, Oxford (UK), and an Expert Digitalisation and Single Market Policies, European Commission (tbc).