The course deals with economic and legal issues arising from the increasing importance of electronic marketplaces and markets for information goods (music, films, news, etc.). In this course, the characteristics of such information assets and markets with network effects as well as appropriate corporate strategies for competition in such markets will be discussed. Subsequently, electronic marketplaces for consumers (e.g. Ebay) and the use of e-commerce in business-to-business trade are examined in the context of intermediation and auction theory. The legal issues of e-commerce in terms of contract law and competition law as well as the particular legal problems of cross-border e-commerce and domain law are contents of this course. In addition, this course deals with intellectual property regulation relevant to information goods (e.g. copyright, software patents).

Requirements: Term paper and oral presentation.

Literature (for economic analysis)

Shapiro, C., Varian H. R. (1999), Information Rules. A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy, Boston (MA): Harvard Business School Press.

Shy, O., (2001), The Economics of Network Industries, Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press.

You will find the timetable, as well as all lecture and exercise records on ILIAS.