The Essentials of Competition Law Confronting with the Competition Concerns of Super Applications

Rahbari, Ebrahim; Nikouray, Nasser

doi:10.22059/jplsq.2025.379418.3568

Articles in Press

Document Type : Article

Authors

Ebrahim Rahbari ¹
Nasser Nikouray ²

¹ Assistant Prof., Department of International Trade, Intellectual Property and Cyberspace Law, Law Faculty, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

² Ph.D. Student in International Trade and Investment Law, Department of International Trade, Intellectual Property and Cyberspace Law, Law Faculty, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2025.379418.3568

Abstract

Super applications are a novel type of multi-sided online platforms that, in recent years, their developers have endeavored to expand market diversity, user base, and product popularity by offering a variety of services under a single platform. Despite the enhancement of user welfare through the use of super applications, neglecting the potential anti-competitive impacts of these enterprises—which have now obtained a considerable share of the digital economy in the countries where they operate—will have detrimental consequences. The present paper, adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, elucidates the concept of super applications and their characteristics, addresses questions such as the methods through which these enterprises threaten competition, and how competition authorities confront them. It demonstrates that attention to modern competitive assessment criteria, alongside a revision of definitions and policies, as well as the adoption of a proactive ex-ante approach by competition authorities against the potential abuse of dominant positions and the commission of competition-distorting concentrations by super applications, is necessary. In Iran, where the emergence of super apps is a recent phenomenon, competition law must prepare itself to address their anti-competitive practices, particularly the abuse of dominant positions and unjust market entries that restrict competition for rivals in various markets.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Public Law

References

English
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The Essentials of Competition Law Confronting with the Competition Concerns of Super Applications

References

References

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript Available Online from 21 March 2027

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 21 March 2027