平台,力量与反垄断挑战:对缩小美国与欧洲分歧的审慎建议

Platforms,Power,and the Antitrust Challenge:A Modest Proposal to Narrow the U.S.–Europe Divide

大平台主导着新经济的格局。俗称为GAFA1或FAANG2的高科技大数据公司被指责利用其平台的力量挤压初创企业,盗用竞争对手的创意,获取用户的个人数据并进行商业化利用。这些平台是否在违反反垄断法?它们是否应该被拆分?抑或说,它们是否是新经济中的进步动力?在这些问题上,美国反垄断法和欧盟竞争法的观点可能存在分歧。欧盟委员会竞争总司已经对谷歌、亚马逊、苹果、脸书提起了诉讼。德国则用本国的竞争法谴责了脸书的行为。与此同时,美国当局虽然心存疑虑,但他们已经启动了调查。本文对美国和欧盟有关垄断/滥用支配地位行为的法律进行了对比分析,并以此为背景解释了为什么欧盟法对待大型科技平台的态度比较激进,而美国法则较为温和。首先,本文分析了这两种视角的深层因素。第二,本文分析了三个案例或问题——谷歌/比价购物案(欧盟)、脸书-个人数据案(德国)以及具有支配地位的平台对开始形成竞争威胁的初创企业的收购案,如脸书对WhatsApp和Instagram的收购案。本文探讨了近期美国最高法院的反垄断裁决即俄亥俄州诉美国运通案3对分析大数据反垄断问题有哪些经验教训。第三,本文探究了美国反垄断法和执法层面应当做什么。文章结论认为,美国反垄断法应当重拾其作为阻止滥用经济力量的监督者角色,并建议美国反垄断法以审慎而切实可行的方式应对大平台的挑战。

Big platforms dominate the new economy landscape.Colloquially known as GAFA or FAANG,the high tech big data companies are charged with using the power of their platforms to squelch start-ups,appropriate rivals’ideas,and take and commercialize the personal data of their users.Are the platforms violating the antitrust laws?Should they be broken up?Or are they the agents of progress in the new economy?On these points,the United States antitrust law and the European Union competition law may diverge.The Competition Directorate-General of the European Commission has brought proceedings against or is investigating Google,Amazon,Apple,and Facebook.Germany,under its own competition law,has condemned Facebook’s conduct.Meanwhile,in the United States,authorities are skeptical,but they have commenced investigations.This Article is a comparative analysis of U.S.and EU law regarding monopolization/abuse of dominance as background to understanding why EU law is aggressive and U.S.law may be meek in the treatment of the big tech platforms.First,it examines the factors that underlie the two perspectives.Second,it considers three cases or problems—Google/Comparative Shopping(EU),Facebook-Personal Data(Germany),and dominant platforms’acquisitions of start-ups that are inchoate competitive threats,such as Facebook’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram.The Article considers what lessons the latest Supreme Court antitrust decision,Ohio v.American Express(AmEx),holds for the analysis of the big data antitrust issues.Third,it asks what U.S.antitrust law and enforcement should do.It concludes that U.S.antitrust law should reclaim its role as watchdog to stop abuses of economic power,and makes suggestions for U.S.antitrust law to meet the big-platform challenge in a modest but meaningful and practicable way.