Digital platform as a digital economy tool
Authors: Kokhan Veronika 
Published: April 2021

Problem setting. Digital platforms ensure the digital activity of state bodies and business. They are tools for the digital transformation of socio-economic systems at all levels that implement network management. The functioning of digital platforms is not limited by borders, they can work anywhere. Now the digital platform has become a separate object of legal regulation, which has its own peculiarities and needs to be regulated by law.
Analysis of recent researches and publications. Digital platforms are studied in the scientific works of Sichkarenko K. O., Lyashenko V. I., Vyshnevsky O. S., Yarmolenko Yu. O.
Target of research. The purpose of the article is to provide a definition of the term “digital platform”, to describe the models of legal regulation of digital platforms, to identify the main problems connected with digital platforms maintaining.
Article’s main body. The definitions of «digital platform», that are available in the scientific literature, contain primarily technological characteristics of this phenomenon, while we are interested in the legal features of digital platforms. From the law point of view, a digital platform should be defined as software or software and hardware that provides third parties access to the digital environment, ensures interaction and other activities between participators in order to develop their software or sell their products, works or services. Depending on the type (private or public), digital platforms have differences in legal regulation. A commercial model of legal regulation characterizes private digital platforms. State digital platforms are regulated because of a centralized model of legal regulation. The commercial platform is established by a legal act of a private company. The founder independently solves the basic questions of functioning of a platform. The activity of the platform is carried out on the basis of the acts of the founder, which are joined by all other participants who intend to use the platform. The state bodies establish public (state) digital platforms. The functioning of such a platform is determined by the law regulations of the state of the appropriate level. An authorized state body (platform operator) manages the digital platform. The activity of state digital platforms is limited to the territory of the state. The state digital platform is not for profit, unlike private ones, as it is created in order to increase the efficiency of public services through digitizing the processes of interaction with their consumers. No full-fledged state digital platforms have been created in Ukraine.
Legal regulation of digital platforms should be aimed at solving the following problems: collection, processing and storage of big data; storage of personal data of platform users, trade secrets of legal entities; providing user access to the digital platform and non-discrimination in this area; employment regulation through the use of digital platforms; problems of competitiveness and monopoly in the business environment; taxation of the activity of the digital platform operator and the activity of its participants who sell goods or provide services.
Conclusions and prospects for the development. The complex nature of the relations that arise within the functioning of digital platforms determines the complexity of the legal regulation of this object, as the activities of digital platforms affect both public (financial, tax) and private law (civil, commercial, labor). This means that the development of the digital economy requires radical changes in the general approaches to the legal regulation of a new type of economic relations.