Horizontal Restraints on Platforms: How Digital Ecosystems Nudge into Rethinking the Construal of the Cartel Prohibition - World Competition View Horizontal Restraints on Platforms: How Digital Ecosystems Nudge into Rethinking the Construal of the Cartel Prohibition by - World Competition Horizontal Restraints on Platforms: How Digital Ecosystems Nudge into Rethinking the Construal of the Cartel Prohibition 44 1

This paper deals with collusive risks that can result from the ecosystems created by digital platforms. Recent case reports reflect that the potential for harm and benefit can be tightly interwoven here. It is not entirely clear, however, in what way the creation of a platform can, in itself, amount to a breach of the cartel prohibition, and how the potential for harm can be balanced against efficiencies in those cases. I argue in favour of an integrated construal of conduct and effect in order to close regulatory gaps whilst preventing false positives.

World Competition