Classroom Companion: Business

4.7 
 Authorities as Ecosystem Components
The digital economy ecosystem also consists of social and legal aspects concerning 
conditions for marketing and use of digital services, including how technologies 
and digital services are regulated by the government. Legal regulations of digital 
services may not only influence the content of these services but also how they are 
adopted by the consumers. Such legal regulations may also have an impact on the 
4.7 · Authorities as Ecosystem Components

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visibility, development, and use of related digital services. Examples of the impact 
of legal aspects on the digital economy are the regulations of cryptocurrencies and 
sharing services such as Uber (Court of Justice of the European Union, 
2017
) and 
Airbnb (Tuohey, 
2018
). The decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to 
classify Uber as a transport company has significant bearing on the business oper-
ations of Uber.
The authorities also follow the businesses conducts of the large corporations in 
the digital economy closely to uncover, for example, tax evasion, unethical or ille-
gal exploitation of personal information gathered about consumers and users, 
infringements or circumventions of competition laws and regulations, building of 
lock-in barriers to create monopoly advantages, unsustainable environmental foot-
print and use of energy, exploitation of workforce, and negligence regarding child 
work. Most of the large corporations in the digital economy have been accused of 
misconduct in one or several of these areas. However, it has been difficult to alter 
the behavior of these corporations, though criticisms from authorities and the pub-
lic, and sometimes legal proceedings, have forced the corporations to alter their 
business conduct in some cases.
The role of the authorities as watchdogs in the digital business sector is, there-
fore, important to avoid concentration of too much power on just a few stakehold-
ers in the digital economy.