Platform power in the video advertising ecosystem

This article presents the results of an in-depth investigation of the integrated platform ecosystem of video advertising. It sets out a specific theory of harm that marries competition concerns with those associated with citizens’ needs for media pluralism. It makes a conceptual contribution to debates about platform dominance by identifying nodes of both infrastructural and strategic power. It makes a practical contribution by demonstrating how a theory of harm can be used to delineate the boundaries for investigation of specific cases, as an alternative to using market definition to determine where problems may arise. The examination of this integrated platform ecosystem case indicates specific information that should be made transparent or sought by regulators in order to assess abuse of dominance.