Misuse of the dominant position in digital economy and the recent development of essential facilities

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K03346
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social law
• Research Institution: Kagawa University
• Principal Investigator: Shibata Junko 香川大学, 法学部, 教授 (90294743)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: デジタルプラットフォーム / グーグル / 市場支配的地位の濫用規制

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The so-called DPF (digital platform) via the Internet uses data collected from users to provide great benefits to society as a whole, such as improving services, while DPF is a dominant business operator. The problem of the exercise of the control power of those operators has been attracting attention from the perspective of competition law also internationally. In this study, we examined the decision of the European Commission against Google as the exclusion of competitors as a problem of the exercise of dominance, and used it as a method for exploring the way of regulation. Furthermore, as a problem for trading partners, I took up the German case of Facebook and considered the modern regulation of competition in the digital economy.

Free Research Field

経済法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

インターネットを介するDPF (デジタルプラットフォーム)は、社会全体に多大な便益を提供しているだけでなく、ドミナントな事業者として巨大な経済力を持つようになってきている。かかる問題は、特に欧州で強い関心が持たれているが、日本においても徐々に顕著な問題として意識されつつある。かかるDPF事業者による支配力行使の問題をどのような法理で検討するかを明らかにすることは、今後の健全な経済社会の発展に寄与すると考えている。