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37 World Competition 149 (2014)
Social Media & Competition Law

handle is hein.kluwer/wcl0059 and id is 157 raw text is: Social Media & Competition Law Aleksandra GEBICKA & Andreas HEINEMANN* Virtually all of the important IT companies have been under scrutiny from the competition authorities, often on a worldwide basis. However, this is not yet true for the main actors in the field of social media. This article explores the competition law concerns of this sector focusing on the most popular platform, i.e., Facebook, and its potential abuses of dominant position under Article 102 TFEU In the world of social media markets, market definition is complicated because of the two-sided nature of the platforms. Hence, a new version of the SSNIP test is proposed here which rejects the application of a price-based test to free Internet services and re-evaluates the importance of quality as opposed to price. Network effects and other barriers to entry are traditionally discussed for the establishment of dominance. Prohibited behaviour may be either exploitative or exclusionary. Potential exploitative conduct is reviewed from the perspective of private social media users, which highlights the controversial attitude of Facebook towards changes in administration and design by the platform, protection of information and deletion of profiles. Past IT-related case law is still relevant for the identification of exclusionary behaviour, especially as regards the rules on tying, bundling and leveraging. Developing data protection law influences restrictions on data portability. Overall, the hopeful conclusion tends to be that competition law misgivings could be allayed by a suitable adaptation of the general regulatory framework to avoid abuse in this rapidly growing area. 1 DEVELOPMENTS IN IT COMPETITION LAW 1.1 STARTING POINT: THE NOTORIOUS IT CASES It is no coincidence that the IT sector has produced some of the most important competition law cases worldwide. The particular competition law exposure of this industry is due to its economic features: the considerable increase in efficiency is not simply due to new technologies, but also to direct and indirect network effects triggering a tendency towards natural monopolies. This inclination is strengthened by high economies of scale and scope, and the need for standardization creating more advantages, path dependency and lock-in. Against this backdrop, competition law control is inescapable, although its national or regional character is not always easy to reconcile with the international orientation of the related companies. Thus, Aleksandra Gebicka, LLB with European Legal Studies at King's College London and University of Zurich. E-mail: aleksandra.gebicka@kcl.ac.uk. Andreas Heinemann, Professor of Commercial, Economic and European Law at the University of Zurich. E-mail: andreas.heinemann@rwi.uzh.ch. Gebicka, Aleksandra & Heinemann, Andreas. 'Social Media & Competition Law'. World Competition 37, no. 2 (2014): 149-172. © 2014 Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands

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