The European Commission’s digital single market policies are increasingly concerned with the impact of so-called ‘platforms’ on competition in the internal market. Whereas the European Commission acknowledges the contributions of platform companies to innovation, it also sees actual and potential damages occurring from their powerful position. As such, the European Commission aims to strengthen the enforcement of its competition law rules in this area. The main research question is how the European Commission has been evaluating the competitive effects of platforms under merger control and whether its approach is adequate to address the manifold concerns related to platforms and competition. Based on a case study analysis, we conclude that the European Commission (1) recognises the platform circumstance, their essential intermediary role in the digital industry and the importance of maintaining fair competition; (2) its analysis has been slowly evolving becoming more granular; (3) platforms’ behaviour and not their size per se is most often the central concern; (4) the proposed Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act packages tackle platform concerns identified in the European Commission’s ex-ante analysis, signalling that its analysis seems to have inspired their creation.

欧盟委员会的数字单一市场政策越来越关注所谓的“平台”对内部市场竞争的影响。尽管欧盟委员会承认平台公司对创新的贡献，但它也看到了其强大地位造成的实际和潜在损害。因此，欧盟委员会旨在加强该领域竞争法规则的执行。主要研究问题是欧盟委员会如何评估合并控制下平台的竞争影响，以及其方法是否足以解决与平台和竞争相关的多方面问题。基于案例研究分析，我们得出结论，欧盟委员会 (1) 承认平台情况，他们在数字行业中的重要中介作用以及保持公平竞争的重要性；(2) 它的分析一直在慢慢演变，变得更加细化；(3) 平台的行为而不是其规模本身是最常见的核心问题；(4) 拟议的《数字服务法案》和《数字市场法案》一揽子解决了欧盟委员会事前分析中确定的平台问题，表明其分析似乎激发了他们的创作。