Our basis for this project on digital platforms is that antitrust enforcement will not be enough – by itself – to generate competition and good outcomes for consumers. Particularly given the slow start to antitrust enforcement in this sector, some sort of US regulation of digital platforms will be needed going forward, just as Europe has recently adopted the DMA and the DSA. US citizens and consumers will benefit if that regulation promotes competition and innovation.
Yale students have come together to write a collection of policy papers on important issues in digital platform regulation. The papers address questions such as: What kind of agency will be best to regulate platforms? How could rulemaking be designed to increase competition? What are technical means to create interoperability? How should algorithms be evaluated? How can blockchain be used anticompetitively? How would the divestiture of the Android operating system change competition in general search?
Regulation can have many goals including protection of consumers, redistribution of surplus, elimination of bias, promotion of innovation, and importantly, protection and enhancement of competition. The TAP approach is to think of competition as a ‘whole of government’ activity, and therefore regulation of digital platforms is another tool to strengthen competition in this sector. The regulatory ideas that follow are designed to be pro-competitive: they lower barriers to entry, make product attributes salient to consumers, and lower switching costs (e.g. a privacy regulation should not entrench the dominant firm and raise entry barriers). Carefully designed regulations on privacy, security, portability, interoperability, etc., make competition stronger.
Student paper topics follow along with the names of the authors.
1. What is the Optimal Regulatory Structure to Govern Digital Platforms?
Jackson Busch
Lorand Laskai
2. Effective FTC rulemaking at the conjunction of consumer protection and competition
Melissa Muller
3. Social Regulation of Digital Technology: Facilitating Technological Moderation Through "Community Unplug Together" (CUT) Laws
Jack Sadler
4. Regulating Content Recommendation Algorithms in Social Media
Sachin Holdheim
5. Manipulating, Fast and Slow
Jerry Ma
6. Mandating Interoperability for Online and Mobile Messaging Services Through FTC Rulemaking
Daniel Backman
Brandon Baum
Aiden Lee
Zaakir Tameez
7. Defaults are new economy Tying
Kart Kandula
8. Zero-Rating as Exclusionary Conduct
Bruno Renzetti
9. Android Divestiture and a Roadmap from AT&T
Kyle Bright
Karissa Kang
10. FCC Rulemaking + REST API: Fostering Social Media Interoperability
Topher Allen
Kate Conlow
11. Open Banking for the Select Few: How a Lack of Regulation Enables Standard Setting that Forecloses Innovation
Matene Alikhan
12. Move Fast and Tie Things: The Anticompetitive Dangers of Big Tech-run Blockchain
Edward Seol