Multi-sided platforms: business, economics & competition policy

Speaker: Professor David Evans (UCL / University of Chicago)
Organised by the UCL Centre for Law, Economics and Society and the UCL Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics

About the course

All of the “sharing-economy” firms, such as Uber, Airbnb, and BlaBlaCar, many of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, and many of the firms that lead the online economy are matchmakers. These businesses all operate physical or virtual platforms where they connect members of one group of customers, like people looking for a ride, with another group of companies, like drivers. Economists call them “multi-sided platforms” and have developed a new body of economics that explains how they work and why they are different from traditional firms.

Multi-sided platform businesses are often at the heart of debates concerning competition policy and sectoral regulation including, in the EU, the current on-line sectoral inquiry and the interchange fee controversies. Platforms have been the subject of several significant court judgments around the world including by the European Court of Justice in Cartes Bancaires v. European Commission and the Chinese Supreme Peoples’ Court in Qihoo360 v. Tencent.

This course will cover the unique business models followed by multi-sided businesses; the economics of multi-sided platforms and the industries they anchor; the application of competition policy to multi-sided platforms; a survey of key competition policy and regulatory matters involving these platforms; and tools and techniques for competition policy analysis.

The course will include presentations from several executives of multi-sided platforms including incumbents and startups.

The course will consist of three segments:

1. The Business and Economics of Multi-sided Platforms.
2. Market Definition, Market Power, and Merger Analysis for Multi-sided Platforms
3. Abuse of Dominance and Coordinated Practices for Multi-sided Platforms

The course will draw extensively on examples of multi-sided platform cases involving online businesses and payments.

Who should attend

The course mainly designed for specialists in competition policy and sectoral regulation (lawyers, economists, and officials) but should also be informative for anyone who works for, invests in, must interact with multi-sided platform businesses.

There are no pre-requisites for attending this course.

About the course tutor

Professor David S. Evans has taught antitrust law and economics at the University of Chicago Law School (2006-present) where he is a Lecturer; University College London Faculty of Laws (2004-present) where he is Executive Director of the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics and Visiting Professor; and Fordham Law School (1985-1995) where he was a Professor. He has BA, MA, and PhD degrees, all in economics, from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Evans was one of the early contributors to the economics of multi-sided platforms. His work on that topic includes Catalyst Code published by Harvard Business School Press in 2007. His recent published work in multi-sided platforms involves platform governance, online attention markets, ignition strategies, and vertical restraints. He has served as an expert economist in a number of high profile antitrust and regulatory matters in the United States, European Union, and China.  In particular, he submitted influential testimony on behalf of Tencent to the Chinese Supreme Peoples’ Court.

He has written extensively on industrial organization including more than 150 articles and 8 books. His 2006 book, Invisible Engines, co-authored with Andrei Hagiu and Richard Schmalensee, was the Winner of the Business, Management & Accounting category in the 2006 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. Many of his publications concern antitrust law and economics.

Dr. Evans is the Chairman of Global Economics Group, where he provides expert help on litigation and regulation matters, and Founder of Market Platform Dynamics, where he provides business and strategic advice. 

BOOKING

You can book your place on this course but using the online booking form below OR by downloading the course brochure and completing the application form