Breaking Down Silos in Public Enforcement: Lessons from Consumer-Facing Markets

Abstract

The digitalisation of markets and the economy has brought new challenges to public enforcement since the same company behaviour can fall within the competence of different authorities (e.g. competition, data protection and consumer authorities). When different authorities intervene simultaneously and separately there is a risk of incompatible and incomplete approaches in the way cases are considered and remedies are designed, especially in consumer-facing markets. While it has been previously discussed how competition, data protection and consumer law can complement each other, this paper seeks to contribute to this discussion by considering three proposals to optimise public enforcement by enhancing the cooperation between regulators in the EU.