{"id":24727,"date":"2023-01-11T16:00:54","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bacciardipartners.it\/?p=24727"},"modified":"2023-03-22T19:18:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T18:18:09","slug":"news-on-digital-platforms-and-abuse-of-economic-dependence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bacciardipartners.it\/en\/news-on-digital-platforms-and-abuse-of-economic-dependence\/","title":{"rendered":"News on digital platforms and abuse of economic dependence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Flavia Sabbatini<\/a> and Agnese Colucci<\/a> – Domestic and International Agreements<\/a> Area<\/p>\n

Download the article in printable version<\/a><\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/www.bacciardipartners.it\/src\/uploads\/Abuso-dipendenza-economica-e-piattaforme-digitali_Bacciardi<\/p>\n

The Annual Market and Competition Law 2021 (Law No. 118\/2022) introduced in Article 33, which amends Article 9 of Law No. 192\/1998, important changes concerning the abuse of economic dependence with particular reference to digital platforms.
\nThe law came into force last 31 October and is aimed at adapting the rules on the abuse of economic dependence in order to counteract the exercise of abusive practices by digital platforms.<\/p>\n

As a general rule, Article 9 of Law No. 192\/1998 prevents companies from abusing the status of economic dependence in which their customers or suppliers may find themselves.\u00a0 The purpose of the restriction is to protect \u201cweak parties\u201d against the bargaining power of \u201cstrong contractual partners\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new rules set out in Article 33 of Law No. 118\/2022 introduce a presumption of economic dependence in commercial relations with companies that offer the intermediation services of a digital platform and play \u201ca decisive role in reaching end users or suppliers, also in terms of network effects or data availability<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0In essence, the rules automatically consider digital platforms as \u201cstrong contractual partners\u201d, unless they prove that there is no economic dependence with third party companies and, in particular, that they do not play \u201ca decisive role in reaching end users or suppliers<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

An indication of such a role of platforms can be found in the definition of \u201ccore platform services\u201d provided by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (EU Regulation 2022\/1925) in recital 2, where it lists among the features of core platform services \u201can ability to connect many business users with many end users through the multisideness of these services, <\/em>a significant degree of dependence of both business users and end users, lock-in effects<\/em>\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Article 33 also provides an illustrative list of practices that constitute an abuse of economic dependence on the part of platforms in order to guide their conduct in commercial relations with third party companies that use their intermediation services, including:<\/p>\n