The Platform Economy: Natural, Neutral, Consensual, and Efficient?

Abstract

This article examines the legal and policy debates surrounding online peer-to peer platforms for rentals and services, focusing on Airbnb and Uber. Such platforms have attained enormous popularity despite being illegal in many jurisdictions; they have called into question a great deal of government regulation. This article argues that the platforms have succeeded, to the extent that they have, by invoking liberal ideas about markets: notably, that markets are natural, neutral, consensual and efficient. The platforms have bolstered these arguments through their identification with the family and with technology. Moreover, all of these arguments operate on two levels. The platforms appear not only as private economic actors participating in markets, but also as providers of technological-normative infrastructure for markets. Although the platforms have successfully exploited these ambiguities, a careful analysis of the arguments reveals that the claims made on behalf of the platforms are vulnerable to critique.

Keywords: Platform economy, Airbnb, Uber, regulation, policy, theory