Digital Markets And Competition Law: Rethinking Traditional Antitrust Approaches
Malika Tiwari, JRF, Government New Law College, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore
ABSTRACT
With the tremendous growth of digital markets over time, numerous antitrust matters have surfaced. These matters have been decided by the antitrust authorities on the basis of different economic theories that mark the digital markets and existing factors for delineation of relevant markets. However, these factors have either grown obsolete or have been rendered insufficient in keeping the market power of tech giants under control. Lately, digital platforms have been surpassing the antitrust scrutiny, given the objective of enhancement of consumer surplus that the present antitrust law entails, as well as the contemporary approach of measuring the same largely in terms of availability of low priced products and services in the market. The activities of digital platforms are being assessed from the perspective of their immediate implications, with insufficient consideration of their potential long-term effects. The same suggests the impending danger of these platforms gaining insurmountable market dominance and becoming indispensable for the consumers, eventually culminating in monopolization.
The present research discusses numerous economic considerations for assessing competition in digital markets. Further, it enlists and describes the current factors used for the delineation of relevant markets in light of three major antitrust matters namely the Microsoft/LinkedIn Case, the Google Android Case and the WhatsApp Pay case, coupled with the contemporary challenges that have surfaced. Lastly, it highlights the need of emphasizing certain other factors for judging the anti-competitive effects in matters involving dominant digital platforms.
