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The Platform Economy. Designing a Supranational Legal Framework
Digital ecosystems formed on the basis of digital platforms are significantly transforming modern reality. Today it is difficult to imagine life without LinkedIn, Facebook, or Amazon. The total income generated by them is estimated at trillions of dollars. Digital platforms are the main driving force of the digital economy. The impact and growth of digital platforms on social and economic processes today is difficult to overestimate. The pandemic has further deepened their influence on society, as almost all social communication and economic activity has moved to online format on digital platforms. The growth of the share of digital platforms in various segments of the economy was so rapid that regulators around the world have not been ready for such large-scale transformations. All this has caused a number of crisis phenomena when IT giants have grown into an independent branch of “power”, which has direct access to the personal and financial data of millions of citizens, and moreover, have the opportunity to directly influence them. This monograph is a unique publication in which, for the first time, a large-scale and sufficiently deep team of experts and scholars from various countries of the world studied in detail the multidimensional phenomenon of the “platform economy” and the measures taken by states to regulate these processes. The monograph assesses the state of Russian and foreign legislation on the regulation of various public relations with the participation of platforms from the standpoint of comparative jurisprudence.
Having analyzed in detail in the first part the concept of digital platforms, their typology, the status of the subjects of the legal relations under consideration, and the structure of the platform economy, the authors in the second part disclose the conceptual and practical issues of legal regulation of individual platforms. At the same time, the research is based on a functional approach. The authors in separate chapters examine in depth the legal regulation of payment and settlement, information and integration platforms, as well as investment, innovation, training, and social and media platforms. It is noteworthy that, relying on a broad foundation of available scientific research, analytical reports, court materials, and the media, the authors not only allow the reader to gain a deep understanding of the regulatory mechanisms used but also formulated specific proposals for their improvement. Undoubtedly, this material will be useful for prospective law-making processes. Having revealed in detail the main aspects of regulation, the authors, within the framework of the third part, formulated specific measures to address the main and most sensitive problem in the regulation of digital platforms—the problem of digital monopolies. The authors formulated proposals for improving legislation both in individual countries and at the global level: in particular, the legal regulation of data exchange as a service for a service when shared, proposals for improving antimonopoly legislation, stimulating healthy competition, and improving certain aspects of industry regulation. In the fourth part, attention is focused on resolving the problem of cyber threats associated with digital platforms. Having investigated the most common types of cyber threats on digital platforms, such as scams and ways of leveling the harm caused by them, the authors turned to the analysis of legal regulation measures to limit the expanding data collection by digital platforms, the use of new authentication technologies, and the use of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence for illegal purposes. The book can be recommended to a wide range of readers interested in the problems of the development of digital platforms and the developing branch of law and science—the law of digital platforms. The uniqueness of this study is that it contains an analysis of regulations, strategies, and longterm plans for the development of digital platforms around the world, law enforcement practice, scientific research, publications of mass media, and Internet spaces from various countries of the world. The team of authors—consisting of scholars from both countries with advanced digital economies and experts from developing countries—provides this monograph with the status of a deep, serious, and comprehensive international study on the legal regulation of the platform economy
