Economic analysis reveals retailer circumvention of exclusive data bans across platform marketplaces, indicating shared data access provides superior regulatory durability.
Key Points
To evaluate how regulatory restrictions on a dual-role retailer's access to marketplace data influence platform strategy, seller protection, and contractual arrangements.
Evaluated an exclusive seller access policy (Policy S) and a shared data access policy (Policy RS) against an unregulated baseline.
Modeled platform organizational responses, strategic contractual adaptations, and seller steering across marketplace and wholesale contract structures.
Policy S effectively isolates market data for sellers but produces the strongest incentive for retailers to undermine the policy via contractual adjustments and regulatory circumvention.
Policy RS functions as an effective compromise that aligns platform and seller incentives while dampening strategic evasion.
Retailers systematically dilute regulatory intent by steering sellers between contract types, with circumvention incentives intensifying under wholesale contracts.