RT Journal Article
T1 The legal anatomy of electronic platforms:a prior study to assess the need of a law of platforms in the EU
A1 Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Teresa
AB Digital economy is nowadays a Platform economy. This pervading expansion ofplatforms has been triggered by their value-creating ability and trust-generation potential.The emergence and increasing popularity of disruptive models, such as sharing-basedeconomy, crowdfunding or fintech variants, have been greatly accelerated by platformbasedsolutions. Platforms have also transformed social, political, public and educationalcontexts by providing participative and collaborative environments, creating newopportunities, facilitating the creation of communities, mobilizing resources and capital,and promoting innovation. Along with these visible social and economic disruptions,platforms are also legally disruptive. Their self-regulating power, the internal relationalcomplexity, and the potential role of platform operators for infringement preventionand civil enforcement in a possible policy shift towards an increasing intermediaries’responsibility have triggered regulatory interest. The aim of this Paper is to examine theplatform model in order to explore the legal anatomy of electronic platforms and identifythe key issues to consider for possible legislative actions in respect of the same withinthe context of the European Union (EU) Digital Single Market. First, the analysis concludesthat existing transaction-oriented rules are insufficient to fully cover all legal angles ofplatforms and do not capture its ‘institutional dimension’. Regulations would have todefine operators’ obligations in relation to users’ protection, transparency, prevention orprivate enforcement. Then, the first key regulatory issue to consider is the role thatplatform operator may or should play. Second, the analysis reveals that the binominaldivision of information society service providers is not entirely consistent with the actualrole of platform operators for the purposes of the application of the specific intermediaryliability rules. Thus, the adoption of a set of uniform criteria under which the platformoperator might be deemed as an intermediary, and the devising of a common liabilityregime for platforms would be critical areas to focus regulatory attention on. Third, asthe community-based architecture of platforms enables the articulation of decentralizedtrust-generating mechanisms (reputational feedback systems, recommender systems,rating and listing), it would be pertinent to consider the elaboration of uniform conceptsregarding those decentralized reputational systems, speculate on possible common criteria in design and operation (good practices, standards), and ultimately clarify liability scenarios.
PB Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane
SN 2421-2156
YR 2017
FD 2017-07
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/33567
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/33567
LA eng
DS e-Archivo
RD 27 jul. 2024