Digital Platform Regulation

The internet promised openness, freedom, and decentralisation. But today’s digital world looks very different. A handful of powerful platforms now shape how we search, shop, socialise, work, and connect. Behind the screen, our clicks, preferences, and movements are tracked, analysed, and monetised—fuelling vast economies built on data, algorithms, and attention. But was this a result of lawlessness—or law by design? This subject explores how law enables, shapes, and challenges the rise of digital platforms and their business models. Students will examine how companies like Google, Meta, Uber, and Amazon structure online marketplaces, rank content, monetise user attention, and control access to data. Students will also learn about the legal and policy regimes that have shape these businesses, the ways they turn data, attention, and labour into commodities, and the inescapable role they now play in private and public life. Through contemporary case studies and regulatory controversies, students will delve into the basics of key legal domains that constitute, contest, and govern platform power, including: