Data Protection: A Friend or Foe of the Competition Law

Abstract

Personal data is one of the key inputs for competition in many industries and its importance is even higher in data-driven markets, such as online platforms. Data protection regulations by regulating the use of personal data also enable its commercialisation; therefore they can be regarded as market regulations. Since there is a commercialised asset and markets run on personal data, there are possible competition law issues that may arise from the impacts of data protection regulations on market competition. Unlike some scholars argue, competition law is not the best instrument to provide a better data protection for consumers but competition rules do apply to the undertakings that compete in order to accumulate more personal data and provide data protection services to their customers. There are some unique features of personal data and data protection regulations that may affect the application of competition law in this area.