Thread by @nikenberger

Digital platforms have become “economic toll bridges” for commerce. Treating them as essential facilities & requiring interoperability would strengthen competition online.

🔊 My piece on Essential Platforms, now published by @StanfordTechLR. #antitrust

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

#GAFA behave just like the railroads did 100 years ago. Instead of physical infrastructure, like bridges and tunnels, the digital platforms leverage network effects that shield them from effective competition. Instead of the American West, the platforms foreclose the Internet.

It is high time to revive, renew, and expand the essential facilities doctrine in the digital economy, as a crucial element of a comprehensive toolkit to strengthen competition and spur innovation--alongside structural remedies, like breakups and functional separation.

Digital platforms have become essential infrastructure for the digital economy--railroads of the modern era. In my paper, I argue that we grant competitors access rights to platforms, and, in a second step, upend their monopoly power entirely.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

More specifically, I suggest a two-tiered remedy: 1) regulators and courts must bar platforms from discriminating and self-preferencing; 2) antitrust enforcers must upend market entry barriers & end monopolies, by forcing horizontal interoperability between platforms.

Blog post version: promarket.org/2020/12/07/ess…

TLDR:

Thanks so much to @jackbalkin @Elibietti @Prof_Bruckner @wsurferesq @julie17usc @charles_duan Eleanor Fox, @MichalGal2 @ericgoldman Alvin Klevorick @marklemley @linamkhan @DSMarkovits @TomNachbar @johnmarknewman...

...Paul Nicklas @PrzemekPalka @f_procaccini @CompetitionProf @t_streinz @ProfFionasm @MauriceStucke @RoryVanLoo for invaluable feedback and advice. Special thanks to @adam_kinkley for excellent research assistance.

Finally, a huge thank you to the wonderful @StanfordTechLR editing team for your tremendous work on this piece. Your effort is truly appreciated, especially so in a year that has been anything but easy for students.

cc @yaleisp @BKCHarvard