Platform market: unfair competition in the age of the collaborative economy

Abstract

Modern market dynamics have decided to incorporate into the notion of collaborative economy those practices for profit exercised by professionals, through the so called information and communication technologies. This situation differs from the initial intention with which the collaborative consumption, the genesis of the cooperative economy, arose. The situation described arises as a means of masking the commercial relationships behind the digital platforms, with the aim of freeing the fulfillment of the legislative burdens that are imposed in the normal course of commercial activities. This unjustified release of normative burdens has as its antecedent an historical search by the capitalist system to evade cumbersome taxes; all of which translates into economic operators as an unfair lowering of regulatory costs within their business processes, with the aim of finding an illegal displacement of demand in their favor and achieving high rates of profit maximization. In this context, this essay will seek to review the ways that have been used over time to avoid costs, ending with masking the methods of the collaborative economy, with a special review of these new business practices and their possible framing in unfair competition conduct, in the light of Ecuadorian legislation, particularly with regard to the specific clause of non-violation of rules.