Competition Law and Personal Data Crossing in Digital Markets

Abstract

A number of issues arise with regard to competition law and data protection, in particular in the online services context. For one, the relationship between competition law and privacy is yet to be fully understood and we discuss below the aspects of this conundrum: first, we look into the issue of whether privacy risks arising in digital markets should be addressed within the competition law analysis; second, we try to identify cases where collecting personal data or depriving access to personal data could be anti-competitive and constitute a breach of competition law. The question of how competition authorities should intervene in cases of a competition law infringement in markets involving data aggregation is also an interesting debate. Our article attempts to provide an insight into these questions, by laying out the legislation, cases and antitrust discussions where in which these questions have been addressed so far.