Ex Ante Regulation and Competition in Digital Markets

Digital platform markets have particular characteristics that may warrant specific regulation, as discussed by a number of high-profile reports by experts appointed by governments and regulators in recent years. To address these particularities, over the past year many jurisdictions have proposed some form of ex ante regulation to supplement existing ex-post competition law enforcement. However, there has been a lack of co-ordination across jurisdictions. This has resulted in significant divergences in the way that the regulations seek to solve the problems, which ultimately could affect their success. To support a discussion about the merits and objectives of ex ante regulation amidst the regulatory cacophony, this paper gathers some of the most salient regulatory proposals and amendments to existing laws, which were available to the public as of August 2021 to compare and contrast them. This vue d’ensemble aims to help the debate about the degree to which it is possible to dovetail the world-wide regulatory approaches to platforms