NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

Digital platforms won't be fixed by competition regulation alone

BusinessDesk
29 Jul, 2019 01:42 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

An academic says regulation might not be the best tool to fight digital harm. Photo / Getty Images

An academic says regulation might not be the best tool to fight digital harm. Photo / Getty Images

Global digital platforms may have the potential for harm, but competition regulation isn't necessarily the right tool for addressing them, a visiting academic says.

Concerns about the size of some platforms – which include Google, Facebook and Amazon – and how those these "big, powerful networks are used," are legitimate, Professor Howard Shelanski says.

"It is very possible that certain things that happen as a result of these platforms are bad things," he told delegates at the Competition Matters conference in Auckland on Friday.

"There are, I think, serious social issues of the way people interact, the way students learn, the way peoples' minds get wired, that we are only beginning to learn about."

He cited consumers' growing "addiction" to Amazon Prime and the special deals it offers. That could also be killing main street in people's hometowns and destroying entry-level jobs in retailing.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Shelanski, a professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington DC, said the social disruption being brought by the new technologies is of a "very profound kind" and probably more important than the competition issues related to the platforms.

"Those to me are public health regulation, employment regulation, all kinds of things that I think should be kept outside of the competition law purview.

"We can't solve those with competition law. If we try to, we will have competition regulators making decisions about areas in which they are manifestly inexpert."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Shelanski was speaking the same day the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission delivered the final report from its digital platforms inquiry.

It recommended that unfair contract terms be made illegal and that the country's privacy laws be strengthened.

A code of practice for digital platforms would give Australians greater transparency and control over how personal information is collected, used and disclosed by digital platforms.

It also proposed a code of conduct to govern relationships between Google and Facebook and media businesses; the updating of the country's merger laws; and the establishment of a new digital markets branch within the ACCC.

Discover more

Opinion

Political Roundup: Capitalism under scrutiny in a new NZ documentary

27 Jul 04:01 AM
Business

With Amazon arriving next door, Fairfax's top bureaucrat aims to shake things up

28 Jul 01:46 AM
Companies

Oz plan to rein in digital giants

28 Jul 05:00 PM
Business

Uber to cut about 400 employees, citing worry of slowing growth

29 Jul 08:06 PM
There are growing concerns about the size of the big tech companies. Photo / Getty Images
There are growing concerns about the size of the big tech companies. Photo / Getty Images

Shelanski told the conference he is not a fan of restricting platforms to certain lines of business, as that inherently reduces competition but also risks reducing scope for innovation between the platform and other product developers.

He argued the better tool was ensuring access to a platform and the data needed to operate on it. That enabled firms on the periphery to get access to the market and gave consumers greater choice.

Portability of customer data was important, but he said platform providers were entitled to keep the information and modelling they had "derived" from that data.

The key was knowing what level and form of customer data was needed to be useful to a potential competitor.

Using an Uber example, Shelanski said a rival ride service might offer customers a joining discount if they bring their Uber ride history and star rating with them.

The customer could then use their own data, imported in a "fairly" rich way, without the whole lot having to be reinvented.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Later in the conference, ACCC special economic advisor Darryl Biggar said that when a firm becomes big enough to constitute a "bottleneck" in a market, line of business restrictions may be necessary given the influence they start having on other suppliers, distributors and manufacturers.

While Amazon had not reached that point yet, he noted it already accounts for 5 per cent of global retail sales and half of all online sales.

Biggar said Amazon bars products from its platform that compete with its own and has also started making popular products in competition with those other suppliers are already offering.

The company also wants to enter every link in the logistics chain and has just started construction of a US$1.5 billion air freight hub outside Cincinnati.

"UPS and Federal Express: Amazon is coming to eat your lunch," he said.

Biggar said that trend has worrying implications for the courier industry if rivals can't get access to Amazon customers.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Earlier this month, Britain's Competition and Markets Authority ordered a halt in any further integration of Amazon with the UK-based food delivery platform Deliveroo.

Amazon shut its UK food ordering business in December after two years. It was entering Deliveroo as a minority participant in a US$575 million funding round.

The CMA said it had reason to suspect Amazon and Deliveroo would cease to be distinct businesses if the investment proceeded.

- BusinessDesk

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Premium
Shares

Market close: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare helps NZX up over 1%

01 Jul 05:48 AM
Business|companies

NZ Super Fund-backed Kaingaroa Timberlands expands with Waikato land purchase

01 Jul 05:43 AM
Premium
Tourism

New heights: Skyline Enterprises' pre-tax profit doubles to $61m

01 Jul 05:10 AM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

Premium
Market close: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare helps NZX up over 1%

Market close: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare helps NZX up over 1%

01 Jul 05:48 AM

Shares in Skellerup Holdings ended the day 5.1% higher at $4.95.

NZ Super Fund-backed Kaingaroa Timberlands expands with Waikato land purchase

NZ Super Fund-backed Kaingaroa Timberlands expands with Waikato land purchase

01 Jul 05:43 AM
Premium
New heights: Skyline Enterprises' pre-tax profit doubles to $61m

New heights: Skyline Enterprises' pre-tax profit doubles to $61m

01 Jul 05:10 AM
Premium
Watch: 'Offensive to girls' - why The Warehouse has been told to remove this TV ad

Watch: 'Offensive to girls' - why The Warehouse has been told to remove this TV ad

01 Jul 05:04 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP