Some time ago, already in 2021, there were reports about so-called shadow websites in connection with the delivery service platform Lieferando. According to the report, Lieferando had registered about 50,000 domains in Germany alone, which are similar to the actual websites of the restaurants. Via these domains, the platform can attract users to its services. The consequences for the connected restaurants are:
- more order transactions are processed via the platform, which leads to commission claims
- in the search engine rankings, their own Internet presences are increasingly inferior.
The customer is thus increasingly drawn to the platform and rarely reaches the restaurant’s own website.
Digital platforms and predatory pricing
Where does the antitrust problem lie? At first glance, one might think that the platform offers a web presence in addition to its own mediation services. If this were optional and voluntary for the restaurants, this would also be unobjectionable.
However, an abuse of predation is obvious if the original mediation service is involuntarily or unwittingly transformed into a sales service of its own and the platform gains more control over the customer relationship in the process. This is reinforced when the platform adopts the business model of the actual intermediary client. This would be the case if there is no longer any fallback option.
A special responsibility for residual competition can follow from the market position of a company. This increases in proportion to the market power. This can also result in a duty of consideration when operating in other markets or entering other markets. The more market power, the more responsibility and the more consideration — for competition. You can read more about this in my doctoral thesis starting on pages 293 ff.
