1. Cognitive foreclosure
- Author
-
O'Loughlin, Peter and Ezrachi, Ariel
- Subjects
Antitrust law ,Economics - Abstract
Digital markets now fundamentally intertwine with our social and economic lives. International enforcement actions, the US and EU Google cases in particular, demonstrate how from a behavioural economic perspective digital platforms may be beginning to implicate antitrust's two most fundamental doctrinal components-conduct and market power-in nuanced ways. In short, the regulatory and policy landscape showcases that we may be moving closer towards an antitrust world whereby firms can manipulate consumers' psychological shortcomings to foreclose competition - a new form of nefarious conduct that might appropriately be termed "cognitive foreclosure". And because consumers' cognitive anomalies are the drivers behind this new form of potentially anti-competitive conduct, consumers simultaneously are the potential solution. The behavioural deviation from perfect competition, then, would need to be "substantial" and "sustainable" such that consumers cannot short-circuit these emerging market failures themselves. This Thesis proffers digital platform markets as one context in which such a deviation may be expected to occur and hence warrant antitrust intervention.
- Published
- 2022