3 Digitalisation: a challenge for... 3.1 ...competition policy But it is equally clear that an effective competitive framework cannot be carved in stone but needs to adapt to changes in the environment. Competition law therefore needs to evolve in order to be effective in the digital age as well. Platforms are a central business model of the digital economy.
Nearly all major internet companies have transformed themselves into platform providers, be they Google, Facebook, Amazon or Alibaba. Markets in the platform economy, however, have a tendency to become concentrated. For two reasons. Returns to scale are one reason. Most of the time, the goods being sold are information-based goods sold globally via the internet. This involves substantial fixed costs but minimal variable costs.