Regulatory Diffusion Beyond Digital Empires – Searching for a Resilient Competition Law Framework

Regulation has had a resurgence across many jurisdictions of late, with digital platforms being distinct new objects that need to be addressed. The emergence of this new regulatory object is part of a global – and vital – tendency toward reassessing tech power and state sovereignty. However, there are considerable differences in how digital platforms are dealt with across jurisdictions. The European Union, the United States, and China have each adopted their own regulatory approaches, ranging from rights-based to market- and state-driven models. While this has led to concerns about regulatory fragmentation and increased costs for consumers, considerable uncertainty also remains regarding <em>how</em> to regulate, identify, and adopt the most suitable regulatory approach. A largely underappreciated aspect of this debate is the rapid process of regulatory diffusion – the adoption of substantially similar rules – in different jurisdictions beyond the major digital empires. Examples include the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its trading partners, where a shift from an <em>ex post</em> to an <em>ex ante</em> regulatory approach in competition law is underway, with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) emerging as a blueprint that different countries customize to fit their digital ecosystems and domestic policies.