Natural Monopolies in Digital Platform Markets Business Law Seminar

Please join us for a Business Law Seminar hosted by Nikhil Gokani, Lecture from the School of Law, University of Essex.

Panellists:

• Francesco Ducci, Fellow at the European University Institute 
• Chair: Dr Eden Sarid, Lecturer in Law at University of Essex

 Natural Monopolies in Digital Platform Markets

Are digital platforms natural monopolies? In this book, Francesco Ducci explores this question through the development of three case studies on horizontal search, e-commerce marketplaces, and ride-hailing platforms, investigating the strength, limits and heterogeneity of potential sources of natural monopoly at play in each sector. Building on these case studies, the book then derives general policy implications for the design of competition policy and regulation in digital platform markets, showing the need for more complementarity between ex ante and ex post approaches to market power.

Francesco Ducci

Francesco Ducci (pictured below) is a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI). Before joining the EUI, he was a Post-Doctoral Global Fellow at New York University School of Law. Francesco’s work and research interests span antitrust/competition policy, economic and social regulation, international trade law, and economic analysis of law more generally. His recent book, Natural Monopolies in Digital Platform Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2020), examines the role of competition policy and regulation in digital platform markets using the theoretical lenses provided by the natural monopoly framework.