Competition Economics of Digital Ecosystems

Competition in the digital economy is increasingly a competition between ecosystems. The most successful digital companies in recent years have been building their business model around large ecosystems of complementary products and services around their core service. Integration of a wide range of products and services can deliver efficiency savings, potentially reducing prices. They can also potentially improve the consumer experience overall, by offering demand-side synergies which increase the ease with which a range of different services are accessed. However, there may also be potential competition concerns regarding digital ecosystems.

In December 2020, the OECD heard from a range of experts on:

how competition between ecosystems works and how it may differ from competition between traditional firms;
the economics of ecosystems and the role that ecosystems play today in digital markets;
potential benefits and concerns of ecosystems for competition, and the reasons why some succeed and others fail
the consequences for enforcement of competition law from the proliferation of ecosystems.

This page contains all related documentation.

Best Practice Competition Roundtables

2021 OECD COMPETITION OPEN DAY

On 24 February 2021, the competition economics of digital ecosystems was addressed at the third edition of the OECD Competition Open Day.

Watch the session on replay

Watch the full event's playlist