Self-Preferencing and Antitrust: Harmful Solutions for an Improbable Problem

Platforms, including vertically integrated platforms, are ubiquitous — both in the modern economy, and throughout history. While some such firms have managed to capture the popular imagination (and ire), there is good reason to expect self-preferencing by vertically integrated platforms is far more likely to benefit competition than to harm it. While there are limited cases in which self-preferencing could be harmful, existing antitrust laws are more than capable of addressing these situations