The functions of law and of digital platforms in the payment system

This article focuses on the industrial role of the State, including the European Union, in the specific field of payments, probably the single most important component of any advanced economic system. Taking the payment system as a case study, the aim is to highlight and explore the conceptual and functional link and analogy between the industrial role of the State, on the one hand, and digital platforms, on the other. Policy makers adopt the most important economic functions exercised by or through digital platforms as industrial measures. The State enables and spurs economic growth and innovation in the payment systems by enacting two industrial measures that represent an application of the platform ‘mechanism’. These measures consist, firstly, in providing a public platform for the private sector and, secondly, in promoting the ‘platformisation’ of the private sector.