Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Fall 2014
  • Article
  • Competition Policy International

Price Restrictions in Multi-sided Platforms: Practices and Responses

By: Benjamin Edelman and Julian Wright
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

In connecting buyers to sellers, some two-sided platforms require that sellers offer their lowest prices through the platform, disallowing lower prices for direct sales or sales through competing platforms. In this article, we explore the various contexts where such restrictions have arisen, then consider effects on competition, entry, and efficiency. Where there are plausible mitigating factors, such as efficiencies from platforms’ price restrictions, we explore those rationales and compare them to the harms. We identify a set of responses for competition policy, look at experiences to date, and suggest some future attempts to improve the functioning of these markets.

Keywords

Intermediaries; Strategy; Pricing; Vertical Restraints; Price; Distribution Channels

Citation

Edelman, Benjamin, and Julian Wright. "Price Restrictions in Multi-sided Platforms: Practices and Responses." Competition Policy International 10, no. 2 (Fall 2014).
  • Purchase

More from the Authors

    • Winter 2019
    • Harvard Journal on Legislation

    From the Digital to the Physical: Federal Limitations on Regulating Online Marketplaces

    By: Benjamin Edelman and Abbey Stemler
    • August 2018
    • Antitrust Chronicle

    An Introduction to the Competition Law and Economics of 'Free'

    By: Benjamin Edelman and Damien Geradin
    • Oxford Review of Economic Policy

    The Market Design and Policy of Online Review Platforms

    By: Benjamin Edelman
More from the Authors
  • From the Digital to the Physical: Federal Limitations on Regulating Online Marketplaces By: Benjamin Edelman and Abbey Stemler
  • An Introduction to the Competition Law and Economics of 'Free' By: Benjamin Edelman and Damien Geradin
  • The Market Design and Policy of Online Review Platforms By: Benjamin Edelman
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College