Abstract
Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce has shown considerable growth in Europe in recent years, generating a turnover in excess of €300bn in the largest European countries (i.e., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) in 2018. With the emergence of B2C e-commerce, marketplaces have grown significantly, expanding in different parts of the supply chain: from providing an ecosystem to online merchants and e-shoppers to offering logistics and cloud services.
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Notes
- 1.
Politecnico di Milano e osservatori.net (2018).
- 2.
The term ecosystem is used to encompass the various groups of economic agents linked to a given marketplace. These include online merchants, final consumers, and postal operators and express couriers.
- 3.
See, e.g., Crémer et al. (2019).
- 4.
The terms online platforms and marketplaces are used as synonyms.
- 5.
In the context of this paper, a marketplace is a platform for the online sale of tangible products (as opposed to intangible services) to consumers.
- 6.
See Evans and Schmalensee (2014).
- 7.
See Crémer et al. (2019) for a detailed discussion.
- 8.
Oxera (2015a).
- 9.
- 10.
See, e.g., Competition and Markets Authority (2015).
- 11.
See, e.g., Niels et al. (2016).
- 12.
The effect of price discrimination on consumers and total welfare depends on the characteristics of the market, such as the intensity of competition and consumers’ sensitivity to price. See Oxera (2015b).
- 13.
Hold-up refers to a situation where two parties are about to make a transaction that requires specific investments on one side or the other. Hold-up problems occur when one of the two parties risks not benefiting from the investment due to the possible opportunistic behavior of the other party after the transaction.
- 14.
This would also apply to consumers in need of particular services (e.g., in terms of delivery frequencies) that only the USO provider would be able to supply at reasonable prices.
- 15.
AGCM (2019), Procedimento A528.
- 16.
Code de Commerce, Article L420–2.
- 17.
See, e.g., Bougette et al. (2018).
- 18.
Articolo 9, legge 18 giugno 1998, n. 192, “Disciplina della subfornitura nelle attività produttive”.
- 19.
Eurostat (2016), SMEs annual enterprises statistics by size and class (distributive trade).
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
European Parliament and Council (2019).
- 23.
In the framework of bargaining theory, the outside option is the opportunity cost for bargaining of each player, i.e., the utility each would receive if negotiations were terminated.
- 24.
Inside option refers to the payoff that a player obtains during the bargaining process, i.e., while the parties to the negotiations are in temporary disagreement.
- 25.
In the USA, Amazon had a market share of 56% in the fourth quarter of 2018, while Ebay 20%. See Statista (2018), Leading online marketplace websites in the United States as of 4th quarter 2018, based on share of visits. In Europe, the situation is similar: the two main online sales platforms are Amazon and eBay, with a market share, in 2015, of 90.2% (up from 88.5% in 2006). See AGCM (2019), Procedimento A528.
- 26.
When dealing with large merchants, a vertically integrated marketplace may be a more effective bargaining partner than dedicated distribution networks and hence enhance consumer welfare. Moreover, if there were a monopoly both at the level of the marketplace and the online merchants, vertical integration would be welfare enhancing as it would prevent the so-called double marginalization. However, since in reality, a large number of online merchants are highly atomised, vertical integration might simply reduce competition at the level of online merchants through the foreclosure of competing online merchants by the dominant and vertically integrated marketplace.
- 27.
The “Buy Box” refers to the white box on the right side of the Amazon product detail page, which allows customers to add items from a specific online merchant directly into their shopping carts.
- 28.
European Commission (2019), “Antitrust: Commission opens investigation into possible anti-competitive conduct of Amazon – Press release,” 17 July.
- 29.
Bundeskartellamt (2018), “Bundeskartellamt initiates abuse proceeding against Amazon”.
- 30.
Austrian Federal Competition Authority (2019), “Austrian Federal Competition Authority initiates investigation proceedings against Amazon”.
- 31.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
See Commission Decision of 27.6.2017 relating to proceedings under Article 102 of the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area (Case
AT.39740 Google Search (Shopping)).
- 34.
AGCM (2019), Procedimento A528.
- 35.
Ibid.
- 36.
European Commission (1975), Case C-6/72 Europemballage Corporation and Continental Can Company v Commission [1975] ECR I-00495.
- 37.
AGCM (2019), Procedimento A528.
- 38.
Data that is cheap to obtain and that does not erode quickly in value is likely to be easily acquired by many firms, suggesting that they can compete effectively; meanwhile, data that does not erode quickly in value, but is costly to obtain, may enable a longer-term advantage in a specific data segment.
- 39.
The notion of social dumping refers to the practice whereby an employer uses cheaper labor compared to what is usually available and employed in a given sector. A company engaging in social dumping typically aims at gaining an economic advantage over competitors using more expensive labour.
- 40.
Oxera (2018b).
- 41.
Legge 27 dicembre 2017, n. 205, art. 1(462).
- 42.
Directive 2008/6/EC.
- 43.
An example is that of the remedies imposed the Competition Commission in the UK in the context of the market investigation conducted in the supermarket sector. Competition Commission (2008), “The supply of groceries in the UK market investigation – Final Report”.
- 44.
Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services.
- 45.
Cannibalisation refers to a reduction in volumes, revenues, or market shares of one product as a result of the introduction of a new product by the same company.
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Alimonti, R., Mautino, L., Stammati, L. (2020). E-Commerce Growth: Competition and Regulatory Implications for the Postal Sector. In: Parcu, P.L., Brennan, T.J., Glass, V. (eds) The Changing Postal Environment. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34532-7_13
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