ABSTRACT
Platform interoperability has become a key tool for countries and regions with a significant global digital economy impact to pursue ex ante control strategies for platforms. Promoting Internet platforms to achieve interconnection requires a proper balance of technical, economic, and law-based logic. At the level of technical logic, interoperability includes service interoperability and data interoperability, both within the platform ecosystem and between the competing platforms. At the economic logic level, the size and marketing strategies of the established large platforms constitute a structural threat to digital market competition, which requires ex ante industry regulation beyond the antitrust enforcement system. At the level of law-based logic, promoting the rule of law development of platform interoperability requires establishing a refined interest-balancing mechanism. We need to pioneer the interoperability of services and data within a large platform ecosystem, and promote data interoperability among platforms with a steady pace.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Lin Hua, ‘The Multiple Logics of Promoting Platform Interoperability’ (Guangming Daily, 13 October 2021) <https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1713474387197403722&wfr=spider&for=pc> accessed 12 November 2021.
2 Wolfgang Kerber and Heike Schweitzer, ‘Interoperability in the Digital Economy’ [2017] (8) JIPITEC 39.
3 OECD, ‘Data portability, Interoperability and Digital Platform Competition’ (OECD Competition Committee Discussion Paper, June 2021) <http://oe.cd/dpic> accessed 10 October 2021.
4 European Commission, Directorate-General for Competition, Y Montjoye, H Schweitzer and J Crémer, ‘Competition policy for the digital era’ (Publications Office, 2019) <https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2763/407537> accessed 10 October 2021.
5 European Commission, Directorate-General for Competition, Y Montjoye, H Schweitzer and J Crémer, ‘Competition policy for the digital era’ (Publications Office, 2019) <https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2763/407537> accessed 11 October 2021.
6 Joseph E Stieglitz and Carl E Walsh, Economics (Huang Xianfeng and Zhang Fan tr, People's University of China Press 2005).
7 Zhu Tong, ‘竞争、可竞争与政府管制 (Competition, Contestability, and Government Regulation)’ (2001) 4 The Journal of World Economy 74.
8 Jordi Gual and Sandra Jódar-Rosell, ‘European Telecoms Regulation: Past Performance and Prospects 1’ in Xavier Vives (ed), Competition Policy in the EU: Fifty Years on from the Treaty of Rome (Oxford University Press 2009).
9 Zhao Peng, ‘平台公正:互联网平台法律规制的基本原则 (Platform Fairness: The Basic Principles of Legal Regulation of Internet Platforms)’ (2021) 21 Frontiers 75.
10 A De Streel, ‘The Relationship between Competition Law and Sector Specific Regulation: The Case of Electronic Communications’ (2008) 1 Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique 55.
11 European Commission, Directorate-General for Competition, Y Montjoye, H Schweitzer and J Crémer ‘Competition policy for the digital era’ (Publications Office, 2019) <https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2763/407537> accessed 1 January 2022.