AMAZON.GOV: DISINTERMEDIATION IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT THROUGH DIGITAL PLATFORMS -BENEFITS AND RISKS
Journal
Ius Publicum
ISSN
2039-2540
ISSN-Digital
2039-2540
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2024-01-01
Author(s)
Abstract
E-marketplaces have the potential to disrupt traditional public procurement systems. While the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Commercial Platforms program was criticized for abandoning competition, transparency, and accountability as safeguards of traditional procurement, this article shows that e-marketplaces do not abandon but redefine those principles. Process transparency becomes data transparency, formal tendering and bidding become competition as observed in private markets, and accountability is shifted from the government to platform operators and users. A concept that is elevated on e-marketplaces (and to some degree replacing value for money) is the standard of customer satisfaction. It is the customer (and not the government official) who buys the product from the seller and who assess the quality and price of the product. At the same time, e-marketplaces also pose new challenges in government procurement that must be properly managed. Rather than disintermediating public procurement, digital platforms re-intermediate public procurement and create new principal-agent problems – since private marketplaces like Amazon are profit-seeking and do not aim to maximize social welfare. While competition law helps to deter anticompetitive behavior of platform operators, mandatory government requirements (such as cybersecurity concepts) remain necessary to protect the government and its users against external threats. Although e-marketplaces hold promising features to simplify procurement processes, such as digital supplier profiles, interoperability between different platforms is still an issue. One of the greatest advantages of e-marketplaces is the functionality to define filters, which can help promote socioeconomic policies. The added function to search and filter platform offerings for “green” products increases the salience of sustainable products and helps promote sustainable procurement.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Volume
2024
Number
1
Start page
1
End page
41
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D._Klingler_Amazon.gov_Ius Publicum_No. 1_2024.pdf
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Format
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