THE DIGITAL ECONOMY AND LEGAL CHALLENGES

Abstract

This article analyses the digital economy, its treatment under competition, and the need for potential regulation. The aim of this article is to answer the question, of how a legal framework looks like that, on the one hand, prevents possible undesirable developments and undesirable side effects of digitization, while not unduly preventing opportunities and suppressing positive effects. The analysis requires an examination of the proper legal framework as well as the unique characteristics of the digital economy that this legal framework must take into account. As a result, in the first part of the paper, the particular features of the digital economy are worked out in the context of existing competition legislation. Based on this, the second part investigates the need for regulation. From the scientific methods, we have used the analytical and descriptive methods to analyze the current situation. By the comparative method, we introduce different views on legal regulation. The presented topic has not been thoroughly examined in the literature on the subject thus far, giving the chance to identify avenues for future research.