Privacy as a Non-Price Competition Parameter PDF Download

Author: Samson Esayas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
It is widely accepted that firms compete by offering consumers lower prices, high-quality products, and a wide range of choices. With the increasing commercialization of personal, there is now a growing consensus that the level of privacy protection and deployment of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) could be subject to competition by companies. A case in point is the recognition by the European Commission that data privacy constitutes a key parameter of non-price competition in the market for consumer communications and for professional social networks. This approach treats privacy as a quality, choice or innovation component of the product/service offered to consumers and certain privacy harms as reductions in these parameters that need to be accounted for in the competition analysis. However, little attention has been paid in laying out a concrete theory of harm that outlines how data privacy can be incorporated into competition analysis as a non-price parameter and what constitutes reduction in privacy. This paper is an attempt to fill in this apparent gap. To this end, the paper provides a critical analysis, in light of EU competition law, of three theories harm for incorporating privacy as a non-price competition parameter into merger assessment, namely the privacy-as-a-quality, the consumer choice theory and the maverick-firm theory. Additionally, the paper examines what dimensions of privacy are relevant for competition and what is the (added) value of incorporating privacy into competition analysis.

Author: Maria Wasastjerna
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 9403522240
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Increasingly, we conduct our lives online, and in doing so, we grant access to our personal information. The crucial feedstock of the world economy thus generated - the commercialization and exploitation of personal data and the intrusion of digital privacy it entails - has built an imposing edifice of market power. As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, this detailed exploration of the interlinkage between competition and data privacy takes a critical look at competition policy to evaluate whether the system in its current form and with the existing approach is capable of tackling the challenges raised by the role of personal data in the shift from an offline to an online economy. Challenging the commonplace assumption that privacy has little or no role and relevance in competition law, the author’s penetrating analysis accomplishes the following and more: provides an in-depth understanding of the intersection of competition and privacy in the data-driven economy; surveys legal policy developments on the role of privacy in competition law; underlines the importance of non-price parameters in competition, such as consumer choice; clearly explains why and how competition law can protect privacy among its policy objectives; and addresses challenges in measuring the intangible harm of digital privacy violation in assessing abuse of market power. Recent case law in Europe and elsewhere, a revealing comparison between relevant European Union (EU) and United States (US) practice, the expanded role of the EU’s Competition Commissioner, and the likely impact of such phenomena as the coronavirus pandemic are all drawn into the book’s remit. In her analysis of the growing privacy dimension in competition policy, the author examines the topic from a broad perspective that includes societal, political, economic, historical and cultural elements. Her insightful multidimensional and value-based review will prove of immeasurable value to practitioners, academics, policymakers and enforcers in its identification of implications for business practice as we go forward.

Author: Samson Esayas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
With the growing importance of data for commercial purposes, privacy has attracted considerable attention in competition law discussions, particularly where companies in datarich industries seek a merger or acquisition. Prime examples of such mergers include the Google/DoubleClick, Facebook/WhatsApp and the recent acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft. Such mergers are primarily driven by the desire to acquire and combine new data assets that are viewed as a key source of competitive advantage in developing and providing digital services. This development in turn raises novel regulatory questions in competition law including whether and how privacy considerations could be incorporated into merger assessments.One emerging approach, shared both by the European Commission (EC) and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is to factor in privacy-as-a-quality (non-price) competition parameter. This approach treats privacy as a quality component of the product or service offered to consumers and privacy harms as reductions in the quality of the product or service that need to be accounted for in competition analysis. Despite some emerging consensus on how to incorporate privacy, there is much uncertainty and scepticism on what constitutes reduction in privacy, the incentive to reduce privacy and the ultimate anti-competitive effect of such a reduction. This paper identifies and reflects on some of these uncertainties and scepticisms surrounding privacy-as-a-quality parameter including the lack of a link between privacy harms and accumulation of too much information; the lack of economic incentive to reduce privacy; and the alleged trade-off between privacy harms and other quality improvements. Finally, the paper examines the role that data privacy law can play in understanding degradation of privacy in competition law.

Author: Samson Y. Esayas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019889144X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
The monetization of personal data has become an increasingly common business practice, igniting global debate on the interface between data privacy law and competition law. Data Privacy and Competition Law in the Age of Big Data provides a comprehensive, novel, and interdisciplinary analysis of this nexus. Drawing insights from emergent properties and complexity science, the book exposes the commonalities and conflicts between how data privacy law and competition law address challenges resulting from the commercialization of personal data. Samson Y. Esayas begins by identifying key shifts in big data: the growing trend of processing personal data for diverse purposes, the aggregation of data across various operations, and the shift from offering stand-alone products and services to ecosystems of several, with personal data central in connecting the different markets. These shifts engender a complex economic landscape, marked by multiple actors, a web of interactions, and non-linear, emergent outcomes. Despite this complexity, the prevailing approach to data privacy law and competition law emphasises isolated units of analysis-whether a relevant market or a distinct processing operation. This approach overlooks system-wide (emergent) risks borne of cumulative processing operations and cross-market practices. Additionally, a mindset focused on either data privacy law or competition law overlooks the increasing intersection between the two regimes, missing opportunities for synergy. In light of these challenges, Esayas's volume calls for recalibrating data privacy law and competition law for a complex economy, emphasizing a holistic, systems-level perspective that addresses emergent harms and a polycentric strategy that leverages the strengths of each legal regime.

Author: Björn Lundqvist
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788971833
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
The digital economy is gradually gaining traction through a variety of recent technological developments, including the introduction of the Internet of things, artificial intelligence and markets for data. This innovative book contains contributions from leading competition law scholars who map out and investigate the anti-competitive effects that are developing in the digital economy.

Author: Shuya Hayashi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819953103
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
This book organizes the intent and purpose of the Japanese competition law (Antimonopoly Act) to address the digitalized socio-economy and provides a detailed explanation of its basic content as well as advanced issues. It includes an overview of Japanese law and its international position, a basic understanding of the big data and AI issues in today's competition law, and perspectives on high-tech regulation. In addition, it includes a variety of important topics, ranging from exploring principles to tackle digital regulatory realities, to understanding and analyzing the competitive realities of multisided markets. It also examines the relationship between information and competition law and that between consumer and competition law. Digitalization is a key concept in our economy and society today. Carbon neutrality initiatives, the need to improve productivity, globalization, and new ways of working are all seeking breakthroughs by way of digitalization. What’s more, digitalization requires free and fair competition in order to encourage technological innovation. The search for transparent and clear competition laws is essential to promote efficient and effective research and development and to promote public awareness through competition.

Author: Alptekin Koksal
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000995844
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
Recent studies on competition law and digital markets reveal that accumulating personal information through data collection and acquisition methods benefits consumers considerably. Free of charge, fast and personalised services and products are offered to consumers online. Collected data is now an indispensable part of online businesses to the point that a new economy, a data-driven sector, has emerged. Many markets such as the social network, search engine, online advertising and e-commerce are regarded as data-driven markets in which the utilisation of Big Data is a requisite for the success of operations. However, the accumulation and use of data brings competition law concerns as they contribute to market power in the online world, resulting in a few technology giants gaining unprecedented market power due to the Big Data accumulation, indirect network effects and the creation of online ecosystems. As technology giants have billions of consumers worldwide, data-driven markets are truly global. In these data-driven markets, technology giants abuse their dominant positions, but existing competition law tools seem ineffective in addressing market power and assessing abusive behaviour related to Big Data. This book argues that a novel approach to the data-driven sector must be developed through the application of competition law rules to address this. It argues that current and potential conflicts can be mitigated by extending the competition law assessment beyond the current competition law tools to offer a modernised and unified approach to the Big Data–related competition issues. Promoting new legal tests for addressing the market power of technology giants and assessing abusive behaviour in data-driven markets, this book advocates for cooperation between competition and data protection authorities. It will be of interest to students, academics and practitioners with an interest in competition law and data protection.

Author: Tzanou, Maria
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1522594914
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
In the age of technological advancement, including the emergence of artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things, the need for privacy and protection has risen massively. This phenomenon has led to the enforcement of two major legal directives in the European Union (EU) that aim to provide vigorous protection of personal data. There is a need for research on the repercussions and developments that have materialized with these recent regulations and how the rest of the world has been affected. Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union is an essential reference source that critically discusses different aspects of the GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive as well as recent jurisprudential developments concerning data privacy in the EU and its member states. It also addresses relevant recent case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, the European Court of Human Rights, and national courts. Featuring research on topics such as public transparency, medical research data, and automated decision making, this book is ideally designed for law practitioners, data scientists, policymakers, IT professionals, politicians, researchers, analysts, academicians, and students working in the areas of privacy, data protection, big data, information technology, and human rights law.

Author: Ariel Ezrachi
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674545478
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
“A fascinating book about how platform internet companies (Amazon, Facebook, and so on) are changing the norms of economic competition.” —Fast Company Shoppers with a bargain-hunting impulse and internet access can find a universe of products at their fingertips. But is there a dark side to internet commerce? This thought-provoking exposé invites us to explore how sophisticated algorithms and data-crunching are changing the nature of market competition, and not always for the better. Introducing into the policy lexicon terms such as algorithmic collusion, behavioral discrimination, and super-platforms, Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice E. Stucke explore the resulting impact on competition, our democratic ideals, our wallets, and our well-being. “We owe the authors our deep gratitude for anticipating and explaining the consequences of living in a world in which black boxes collude and leave no trails behind. They make it clear that in a world of big data and algorithmic pricing, consumers are outgunned and antitrust laws are outdated, especially in the United States.” —Science “A convincing argument that there can be a darker side to the growth of digital commerce. The replacement of the invisible hand of competition by the digitized hand of internet commerce can give rise to anticompetitive behavior that the competition authorities are ill equipped to deal with.” —Burton G. Malkiel, Wall Street Journal “A convincing case for the need to rethink competition law to cope with algorithmic capitalism’s potential for malfeasance.” —John Naughton, The Observer

Author: Paul Nihoul
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788972449
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Rapid technological innovations have challenged the conventional application of antitrust and competition law across the globe. Acknowledging these challenges, this original work analyses the roles of innovation in competition law analysis and reflects on how competition and antitrust law can be refined and tailored to innovation.