Regulating Multisided Platforms? The Case Against Treating Platforms As Utilities

The bloom is off the Big Tech rose. It seems nearly the entire political spectrum is angry with Amazon, Google, and Facebook for one reason or another. This has led to a great deal of discussion on whether and how to regulate (or even break up) these platforms, including whether they should be regulated as utilities. Our purpose with this article is simply to caution against some forms of regulatory treatment which emphasize the utility-like nature of large platforms. We choose the word “cauti