Gig Workers Need Antitrust Reform
Instead of attempting to create an economistsâ utopia of âperfect competition,â policymakers should reform antitrust to democratize power in the economy. Uber and Lyft drivers protest in Los Angeles in October (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
There have been more significant antitrust developments over the past two months in the United States than over the past twenty years. Last Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and Guam filed twinmonopolization suits against Facebook alleging illegal competitive practices and acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. The suits, if they succeed, likely would lead to a breakup of the company. And in October, the Department of Justice (DOJ, the FTCâs sister antitrust enforcer at the federal level) and eleven states sued Google for exclusionary conduct in the online search and search advertisin
Funda Ustek-Spilda
A new ecosystem of digital labour platforms has emerged over the past decade transforming the very infrastructures of capitalism. The growth of platforms represents a double movement, whereby certain platforms, in key areas such as logistics, food delivery and mobility, are becoming so pervasive and central to the functioning of economies and everyday lives that they are becoming not just corporate behemoths but infrastructures themselves.
In this new system, the platform business model dominates not only how production is organised but also how it is distributed and valued. In this process, platforms also begin to push other, more traditional infrastructures to adopt their business model, as profit possibilities and margins as well as the efficiency of other systems are called into question. The pandemic especially sped up this process, with a rapid platform-isation of work in a range of sectors, from finance to hospitality, as the space and scope for other labo