Abstract

Digital transformation of industries and markets remains a key challenge for the modern competition policy. Digital ecosystems are playing increasingly important roles in the structure of the economy. That is why their regulation is becoming an especially relevant problem for antitrust regulators. The goal of this preprint is to identify key specific factors of competition restraints on markets for goods and services in the spheres of digital ecosystems functioning. The authors of the research aggregate and compare main concepts and models of digital ecosystems with a focus on procompetitive and anticompetitive factors of their activities. The authors also summarize main issues raised in the process of market behavior qualification and market structure assessment for artificial intelligence (AI) intensive companies (ecosystem leaders). These issues include enhanced market concentration, risks of price discrimination and algorithmic collusion. The main research method in this regard is the legal and economic analysis, which is based on the economic assessment of Russian and foreign legal documents. The specific challenge in that sphere is the dependence of AI efficiency on big-data-based machine learning. This feature causes an increase in market concentration, strengthens the positions of market leaders, and potentially weakens the competitive environment. The results of the research include the systematization of digital ecosystem concepts, the detection of main factors for their modeling and the identification of presumptions and consequences of the modernization of antitrust regulation. Antitrust bodies are recommended to improve their own digital competencies and analytical capabilities to prevent the loss of control over the market, as well as the elimination of AI benefits.