Fair Gatekeeping in Digital Ecosystems

Overview & Synopsis

Do users receive their fair contribution to digital ecosystems? The frequent accusations of excessive platform fees and self-preferencing leveled at dominant gatekeepers raise the issue of the standard gatekeepers should be held to. The paper provides a framework to explain business strategies and assess regulatory proposals. It stresses the key role played by the zero lower bounds on core and app prices in the setting of privately and socially optimal platform fees. Finally, it derives a simple rule for regulating access conditions and analyses its implementation.