Big data: A new frontier for competition law

By Kalyani Singh and Mohith Gauri, Chandhiok & Mahajan
0
3720
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Whatsapp
Telegram
Copy link

Big data and data-driven innovations have become an important part of our digital society. Big data has the potential to significantly improve services and products. Given the ubiquity and the impact of big data, the focus is not whether to, but how to implement regulatory oversight. Regulation has been examined in the context of data protection enforcement.

Kalyani SinghPartnerChandhiok & Mahajan
Kalyani Singh
Partner
Chandhiok & Mahajan

However, the regulation of big data through competition law enforcement has also become an important objective.

Big data and merger review: Big data concerns are important in merger cases involving data related markets. Mergers can lead to differentiated access and increased concentration of data if the transaction creates an entity holding a large database. Such a combination of interests is concerning if it is impossible for competitors to replicate or access the information.

In the Facebook (FB)/WhatsApp (WA) case, the European Commission (EC) considered whether the integration between FB’s social networking platform and the messaging application WA would allow the former access to the latter’s user data, thus reducing competition. Assessing the impact of data concentration on online advertising, EC concluded that there were no competition concerns, as alternative providers would continue to offer targeted advertising after the merger. Also, large amounts of internet user data, valuable for advertising purposes, are not within the exclusive control of FB. EC also decided similarly in the Microsoft/LinkedIn merger.

You must be a subscribersubscribersubscribersubscriber to read this content, please subscribesubscribesubscribesubscribe today.

For group subscribers, please click here to access.
Interested in group subscription? Please contact us.

你需要登录去解锁本文内容。欢迎注册账号。如果想阅读月刊所有文章,欢迎成为我们的订阅会员成为我们的订阅会员

已有集团订阅,可点击此处继续浏览。
如对集团订阅感兴趣,请联络我们

Kalyani Singh is a partner and Mohith Gauri is an associate at Chandhiok & Mahajan.

C-524, Defence Colony
New Delhi – 110 024
India

Mumbai | Bengaluru

Contact details
Tel: +91 11 4163 0033
Fax: +91 11 2433 9075
Email: office@chandhiok.com

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Whatsapp
Telegram
Copy link