The relationship between regulation and innovation – intended both in organizational and technological terms – has always been particularly problematic. This is even more true in the case of digital platforms, i.e. those new hybrid animals which appeared in recent years in a wide array of sectors giving rise to major competition and regulatory issues.
The growing market power of Platforms through network effects and their role of gatekeepers have posed new challenges to regulation, and public institutions struggle to keep pace with the development of digital markets.
Some signs of advancement come  from  the EU, which is elaborating a comprehensive regulatory framework (the so-called Digital Services Act, expected in a proposal form at the end of 2020) aimed at introducing a new ex ante competition policy tool together with other innovative instruments to tame abuse against consumers and competitors. Meanwhile, in the US with the “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets”, the Antitrust Commission of the Parliament has suggested the need to break up the Big Tech.
Furthermore, the EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced interesting novelties concerning the right to collectively bargain, which will be presumably extended also to self-employed workers, thus addressing the unbalance of power between labour and capital in the context of digital markets.
The webinar will focus on the recent and expected evolution of antitrust policies and regulation of platform economy, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and providing a comparative analysis of the dynamics emerging in particular in the Western world, with a close look at the EU and the US.
The webinar will also be an opportunity to present the Turin School of Regulation Observatory on digital markets and platform regulation.