By Sarah Left, 11 August 2000 00:15
NEWS Business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplaces need definitive regulatory guidelines in order to avoid allegations of monopoly behaviour, according to the guests on this week's Behind the Headlines. The debate centred on concerns within the industry that online marketplaces could be forming cartels. Earlier this week, the EU approved the first e-marketplace that it has investigated, while the US is considering a system of self-regulation to stop anti-trust problems before they start. Mary Cockcroft, the MD of Pagoda Consulting, said: "There is definitely a cartel issue here. It's well-known that B2B markets do form cartels, even if it's unofficial, and that includes things like oil, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals. There is a case for regulation in this marketplace, since it could lead to the exclusion of small suppliers, the reduction of diversity and - for consumers - increasing price." However, Ian Lynch, director of strategic advisory services at the Butler Group, said e-marketplaces should be left to free market forces. He said for all its talk of self-regulation, the US is more likely to interfere than the EU. "It's ironic that the US, which we tend to regard as a low regulation economy, has actually been much stiffer in competition terms than Europe for at least a hundred years. There were the equivalent of Bill Gates in the railroad and steel industries at that time, and they got busted by the anti-trust laws then." Also up for discussion this week is Sun's decision to ignore Linux in favour of Solaris. The full programme can be seen in the IT Law Channel (http://www.silicon.com/39052 ).
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