Abstract
We analyze the effects of enforcing vs. exempting access ISP from net neutrality regulations when platforms are present and operate two-sided pricing in their business models. This study is conducted in a scenario where users and Content Providers (CPs) have access to the internet by means of their serving ISPs and to a platform that intermediates and matches users and CPs, among other service offerings. Our hypothesis is that platform two-sided pricing interacts in a relevant manner with the access ISP, which may be allowed (a hypothetical non-neutrality scenario) or not (the current neutrality regulation status) to apply two-sided pricing on its service business model. We conclude that the platforms are extracting surplus from the CPs under the current net neutrality regime for the ISP, and that the platforms would not be able to do so under the counter-factual situation where the ISPs could apply two-sided prices.
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Acknowledgments
This work has been conducted during a research stay in Summer 2023 at the Weizenbaum Institut, Berlin, Germany, hosted by the Research Group Digital Economy, Internet, Ecosystems and Internet Policy thanks to Dr. Stocker’s invitation. Financial support is acknowledged from Grant PID2021-123168NB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI, Spain/10.13039/ 501100011033 and the European Union A way of making Europe/ERDF and Grant TED2021-131387B-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI, Spain/ 10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union NextGenerationEU/ RTRP.
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Guijarro, L., Pla, V., Vidal, J.R. (2025). ISP Pricing and Platform Pricing Interaction Under Net Neutrality. In: Naldi, M., Djemame, K., Altmann, J., Bañares, J.Á. (eds) Economics of Grids, Clouds, Systems, and Services. GECON 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15358. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-81226-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-81226-2_8
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