Regulating digital platforms: A comparative analysis of Kenya and South Africa

Karissa Moothoo Padayachie Nair () and Reena Das Nair ()
Additional contact information
Karissa Moothoo Padayachie Nair: University of Johannesburg
Reena Das Nair: University of Johannesburg

No 338, ERSA Working Paper Series from Economic Research Southern Africa

Abstract: Kenya, often referred to as Africa’s “Silicon Savannah”, has rapidly evolved to become the regional digital business hub in East Africa. While Kenya’s approach to regulation has led to some market-driven competition, it faces similar competition-related challenges that many jurisdictions around the world face in the constantly evolving digital markets landscape. There have been competition concerns raised by entrepreneurs and businesses with respect to accessing markets and competing against the large domestic and global players that have already entered and taken up lead positions in Kenya’s digital ecosystem. This led to the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) introducing the Competition Amendment Bill in 2024 which is targeted at addressing platform dominance in digital ecosystems. South Africa adopted a different approach to regulating the digital economy using market inquiries as the primary tool to address potential harm to competition. The market inquiries highlighted concerns surrounding platform dominance and barriers to entry in e-commerce, amongst other concerns.

Keywords: Digital platforms; Competition Policy; Digital Market regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K21 L41 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in ERSA Working Paper Series, June 2026

Downloads: (external link)
https://ersawps.org/index.php/working-paper-series/article/view/338/205 First version, 2026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rza:ersawp:338

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ERSA Working Paper Series from Economic Research Southern Africa
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Maggi Sigg ().