Harvard University Press
Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy
Key Metrics
- Ariel Ezrachi
- Harvard University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780674545472
- 9.3 X 6.3 X 1.1 inches
- 1.4 pounds
- Law > Antitrust
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Shoppers with Internet access and a bargain-hunting impulse can find a universe of products at their fingertips. In this thought-provoking expos�, Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice Stucke invite us to take a harder look at today's app-assisted paradise of digital shopping. While consumers reap many benefits from online purchasing, the sophisticated algorithms and data-crunching that make browsing so convenient are also changing the nature of market competition, and not always for the better.
Computers colluding is one danger. Although long-standing laws prevent companies from fixing prices, data-driven algorithms can now quickly monitor competitors' prices and adjust their own prices accordingly. So what is seemingly beneficial--increased price transparency--ironically can end up harming consumers. A second danger is behavioral discrimination. Here, companies track and profile consumers to get them to buy goods at the highest price they are willing to pay. The rise of super-platforms and their frenemy relationship with independent app developers raises a third danger. By controlling key platforms (such as the operating system of smartphones), data-driven monopolies dictate the flow of personal data and determine who gets to exploit potential buyers.
Virtual Competition raises timely questions. To what extent does the invisible hand still hold sway? In markets continually manipulated by bots and algorithms, is competitive pricing an illusion? Can our current laws protect consumers? The changing market reality is already shifting power into the hands of the few. Ezrachi and Stucke explore the resulting risks to competition, our democratic ideals, and our economic and overall well-being.
Author Bio
Ariel Ezrachi is the Slaughter and May Professor of Competition Law and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. He serves as the Director of the University of Oxford Centre for Competition Law and Policy.
He is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement (OUP) and the author, co-author, editor and co-editor of numerous books, including Competition Overdose (2020, HarperCollins), Virtual Competition - The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm Driven Economy (2016, Harvard), EU Competition Law - An Analytical Guide to the Leading Cases (7th ed, 2021, Hart), Competition and Antitrust Law - VSI (2021, OUP), Global Antitrust Compliance Handbook (2014, OUP), Research Handbook on International Competition Law (2012 EE), Intellectual Property and Competition Law: New Frontiers (2011, OUP), Criminalising Cartels: Critical Studies of an International Regulatory Movement (2011, Hart), Article 82 EC - Reflections on its recent evolution (2009, Hart) and Private Labels, Brands and Competition Policy (2009, OUP).
His recently published papers focus on the digital economy, e-commerce, parity clauses, marketplace bans, vertical agreements, buyer power and the limits of competition law. They include the award winning papers 'Sponge', 'Artificial Intelligence & Collusion', and 'Sustainable and Unchallenged Algorithmic Tacit Collusion'. He is also author of the BEUC consultation paper on 'EU competition law and digital economy' and co-author of the report on 'Digital Platforms' (Stigler Center, Chicago University, Booth School of Business) and the Independent Expert Report on Digitalisation and its Impact on Innovation (EU Commission).
His research and commentary have been featured in The Economist, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Guardian (opinion), The Guardian, Nikkei, Times Higher Education, Harvard Business Review, HBR (2), Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Chicago University Pro Market, New Scientist, Politico, Politico-pro, Politico-Tec, China Daily, OBLB, WIRED, Click - BBC, BBC Radio 4, CPI, Bloomberg, Concurrences, GCR, The Scotsman, The Times, Sunday Times, Fast Company, Nesta, NewStatesman, UNCTAD, OECD, Forbes, Factor, The Australian, NRC 2016, NRC 2018, Business Insider, CMS Wire, Workology, Cited, IAI, Les Echos, ACCC, ZDnet, Financial Express, CLI, Sina, Project-syndicate, and other international outlets.
His work on algorithmic collusion (together with Prof Stucke) has been central to policy discussions in international organisations and competition agencies (including, among others, the CMA, OECD, UN, ICN, House of Lords, Monopolkommission, Autorite de la concurrence and the Bundeskartellamt).
He is part of a reserch project on Competition Policy and Economic Inequality, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Prof. Ezrachi develops training and capacity building programmes in competition law and policy for the private and public sectors, including training programmes for European judges endorsed and subsidised by the European Commission. He is an Academic Advisor to the European Consumer Organisation - BEUC, member of the Independent Committee on Digital Platforms, member of UNCTAD Research Partnership Platform, and a former Non-Governmental Advisor to the ICN.
Source: University of Oxford
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