Market power and public opinion: Cross-national evidence on concentration, perception of anti-competitive behaviour and EU competition policy

The expansion of tech companies acting as platforms or intermediaries in two-sided markets, arguably together with other macroeconomic developments, have led to a significant increase in concentration and market dominance across many sectors of the global economy (Philippon 2019; Calligaris et al, 2018, Bajgar et al, 2023). There is a growing debate and concern about the consequences of this increase in market power, and not least it's political effects, among economists and antitrust scholars, yet there is a comparative lack of attention from political science. The negative effects of tech companies acting as platform monopolists can increasingly be felt by consumers in many areas of life (Doctorow, 2025). However, current research that recognises that consumers are also voters and investigates public opinion towards ‘big tech’ companies, market dominance, and competition policy is limited (for notable recent exceptions see Brutger and Pond, 2023; Ibrahim et al, 2024). At the same time the European Union has emerged as a major actor in antitrust enforcement and the regulation of technology companies. We argue that both theoretical and empirical work is needed to bridge the gap between a changed economic landscape and our understanding of how voters view the modern digital economy, and the role of EU competition policy in this changed landscape. This paper uses cross-national survey data to investigate to what degree there is public awareness of concentration, abuses of market power, and anticompetitive behaviour, whether public opinion corresponds to measured levels of concentration across sectors and countries, and whether this increases support for the EU's role as a competition regulator.