The digital definitions dilemma
The rapid development of AI, and the push to avoid failures of the past through expedited regulation, may also speed up efforts to pin down legal definitions of the ecosystems in which Big Tech operates.
Are app stores more like real estate agents, carmakers or shopping mall landlords?
That question is at the heart of a growing debate that has surfaced in Epic Games’ competition lawsuits with Apple and Alphabet-owned Google, which allege the US tech companies engaged in restrictive trade practices via their app stores: how to regulate digital ecosystems and how to define them.
In the first days of the lawsuit, it was the shopping mall analogy that seemed to stick the most, as the courtroom deliberated on the definition of the companies' respective app stores and the marketplaces in which they operate.
The answers to these questions will be key to how Federal Court of Australia Judge Jonathan Beach will view Google and Apple’s conduct, which markets he will view as relevant to assessing their conduct, and whether he finds it to be anticompetitive.
