Being at the crossroads between different markets and sectors, platforms play a central role for companies to remain competitive. They offer enormous growth opportunities, but at the same time change market structures and accelerate disruptive changes.
Policy-making with regard to platforms should follow certain principles such as: i) React to market distortions and structural failures based on long term observations and factual evidence. ii) Follow the fundamental principle of treating the same equally and the different differently. iii) Acknowledge and take into account high competitive pressures among platforms. iv) Avoid fragmentation between different areas (e.g. industrial, fiscal, transport) and governance levels. v) Build a clear supervisory structure.
Essentially, Europe has the right conditions to develop a thriving platform economy, if two central factors are fulfilled: an innovation friendly mind-set and the creation of an appropriate framework.
