Policy Brief n.35 - Certification of Business Practices and Algorithms of Digital Platforms
Voluntary certification is a novel approach that can restrict the harmful practices of some dominant platforms and motivate and reward emerging platforms that align their practices with the public interest. A Policy Brief by Dovev Lavie, Oreste Pollicino, and Tommaso Valletti
Executive Summary
Europe has been relying on regulation to protect against the Big Tech firms, but regulation has reached its limits as the US administration relaxes its own regulation and challenges EU policies. In view of the shift in political regime, how can the EU cope with the Big Tech platforms and nurture European digital platforms that better serve society?
The recent IEP&BU report: Rules That Empower (De Gregorio et al., 2025) has recognized a limitation of the current regulation that seeks to prevent harms inflicted by digital platforms but has stifled innovation.
The current policy brief complements that report with another proposal that can help foster competition and innovation in digital markets.
Voluntary certification is a novel approach that can restrict the harmful practices of some dominant platforms and motivate and reward emerging platforms that align their practices with the public interest.
Eventually, those undergoing certification can gain a differentiation advantage and impose competitive pressure also on some dominant platforms that may revise their practices to regain market share. If needed, regulators can make certification mandatory for dominant platforms.
Certification involves setting standards for desirable practices and identifying undesirable practices using scorecards to help assess and benchmark digital platforms. The inspection would be carried out by an independent third-party organization with expertise and ability to scrutinize the inner working of platforms.
Digital platforms may misrepresent or disguise their business practices to avoid being caught violating regulations. Therefore, the inspection should include the algorithms of digital platforms. Algorithms can expose the true nature of practices and conclusively reveal how the platform conducts its operations.
Complementing regulation with certification of digital platforms can help protect against their harmful practices, as we discussed in our forthcoming article (Lavie, Pollicino, & Valletti, forthcoming).
IEP@BU does not express opinions of its own. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.
