scholarly journals Competition Law in Asia: The Interplay of Power Dynamics in the Digital Market

Lentera Hukum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 295
Author(s):  
Ankit Srivastava ◽  
Aditi Richa Tiwary
Keyword(s):  
Data Privacy ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Competition Laws ◽  
Evaluation Parameters

The digital economy and multi-faceted markets have significantly contributed to the efficacy of most transactions governing modern humankind. Digital platforms have become an irreplaceable cross-border asset that has acclimatized with technological advancements. However, there is obscurity in the methods of accommodation of digital economy in competition laws of most jurisdictions globally. Consequently, there are ascertainable issues in competition laws of such jurisdictions. Such issues remain unaddressed due to the absence of evaluation parameters of digital platforms in the conventional market system and culminate into an Implicit and undetected abuse of dominance. This study used the doctrinal method by highlighting the distinctness of contemporary digital markets and their consequential issues. This study explicated the issues in the competition that need to be independently addressed, considering the intricacies of digital platforms. The presence of non-price factors, multi-faceted markets, and data-driven networks being the primary source of such novel issues have been particularly explicated. The established premise was substantiated by way of case studies of major events involving factors such as predation, deep discounting, and data privacy. Elucidation of the competition system in most jurisdictions in Asia and the accommodation of digital platforms in the same was also sufficiently enunciated to present a holistic insight to the established premise. Finally, the authors suggested ways to sufficiently address the issues arising from the distinctness of digital platforms, thereby giving rise to a dynamic and all-inclusive competition. KEYWORDS: Digital Markets, Competition Law, Data Privacy.

scholarly journals Digital Economy, Big Data and Competition Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-89
Author(s):  
Roberto Augusto Castellanos Pfeiffer
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Sense Data ◽  
Abuse Of Dominant Position

Big data has a very important role in the digital economy, because firms have accurate tools to collect, store, analyse, treat, monetise and disseminate voluminous amounts of data. Companies have been improving their revenues with information about the behaviour, preferences, needs, expectations, desires and evaluations of their consumers. In this sense, data could be considered as a productive input. The article focuses on the current discussion regarding the possible use of competition law and policy to address privacy concerns related to big data companies. The most traditional and powerful tool to deal with privacy concerns is personal data protection law. Notwithstanding, the article examines whether competition law should play an important role in data-driven markets where privacy is a key factor. The article suggests a new approach to the following antitrust concepts in cases related to big data platforms: assessment of market power, merger notification thresholds, measurement of merger effects on consumer privacy, and investigation of abuse of dominant position. In this context, the article analyses decisions of competition agencies which reviewed mergers in big data-driven markets, such as Google/DoubleClick, Facebook/ WhatsApp and Microsoft/LinkedIn. It also reviews investigations of alleged abuse of dominant position associated with big data, in particular the proceeding opened by the Bundeskartellamt against Facebook, in which the German antitrust authority prohibited the data processing policy imposed by Facebook on its users. The article concludes that it is important to harmonise the enforcement of competition, consumer and data protection polices in order to choose the proper way to protect the users of dominant platforms, maximising the benefits of the data-driven economy.

scholarly journals The scope of competition law in the digital economy

Pravovedenie ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 522-572
Author(s):  
Ioannis Lianos ◽  
◽  
Zingales Nicolo ◽  
Andrew McLean ◽  
Azza Raslan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personal Data ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Brics Countries ◽  
Explicit Consent ◽  
Data Portability ◽  
The Right ◽  
Interim Measures

The article reveals new problems arising in the digital economy and the need for antimonopoly regulation. It also analyzes the legal remedies and procedures for competition law in the context of digitalization. Redesigning competition law procedures for the digital economy can take two forms: 1) ensure the rate of competition law enforcement so as to avoid acting in situations when market tipping has already occurred and it is almost impossible to reverse the anticompetitive outcome; 2) develop remedial action that takes into account the scale of anticompetitive behavior, which might better reflect the complexity of digital markets. Competition authorities should consider utilizing interim measures and commitment decisions in the digital economy, both instruments playing a complementary role. Interim measures can be used within a revised framework with lower thresholds, but this should only be reserved for complicated and lengthy investigations where there is risk of irreversible harm to competition. These measures should be applied to the most harmful violations, such as cartels and abuse of dominance. Commitment decisions can be utilized to address less serious violations where it is also beneficial to the competition authority to reach a swift resolution. The article analyzes the division of companies as a way to eliminate violations. Division can take different forms and need not be structural. A certain ‘light-touch’ separation may be achieved by policies mandating that digital platforms not use personal data that has been harvested by the members of their ecosystems unless they have the explicit consent of their users. The article also addresses issues such as data portability and cross-platform compatibility. The authors have proved that the BRICS countries need to supplement their national legislation on the protection of personal data in terms of norms on their portability. Although it is not mainly designed as a tool to combat monopolies and market power, data portability will have a significant impact on competition in digital markets. Multisided digital platforms are characterized by a high network and lock-in effects. In a winner takes all, or most, where undertakings compete for the market rather than in the market, the right to data portability may provide some relief from the power that large digital platforms hold.

Abuse of Dominance in Digital Platforms: An Analysis of Indian Competition Jurisprudence

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Tilottama Raychaudhuri
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Competition Commission ◽  
Competition Laws ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
The Law ◽  
Abuse Of Dominance ◽  
Competition Enforcement

An ongoing debate in competition jurisprudence today is with respect to the enforcement of competition law in digital markets. Digital markets are newer markets in context of which traditional tools of competition law have to be understood and applied. Though the challenges of competition enforcement in digital markets are manifold, this paper focusses on the assessment of dominance and abuse in platform markets, particularly in light of the 2019 Supreme Court judgement in the Uber matter. The Supreme Court’s opinion that loss-making pricing can be an indicator of dominance is inconsistent with the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) views, which had cautioned against this circular interpretation of dominance and put the issue to rest. The author submits that conflicting interpretations such as these erode the certainty of the law. Competition laws can be flexible but not uncertain or unpredictable. The author identifies areas of concern in digital platforms that are yet unresolved and need to be addressed urgently by guidelines/amendments before the law on this issue becomes incoherent.

Direct Consumer Influence—The Missing Strategy to Integrate Data Privacy Preferences into the Market

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Kuenzler
Keyword(s):  
Data Privacy ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Consumer Sovereignty ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Privacy Preferences ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Quality Dimensions

Abstract In view of a growing number of competition law investigations into the gathering and use of personal data by digital platforms, this article discusses the extent to which consumer sovereignty can be given greater weight in concentrated marketplaces where firms employ multi-sided business models and compete along quality dimensions such as privacy rather than price. The article explores the concept of direct consumer influence as a novel approach vis-à-vis switching or choosing differently in the public enforcement of competition law. Direct consumer influence constitutes a distinct avenue for embedding consumers’ choices into the market when consumers have few possibilities to act and holds the potential to shape digital markets in unanticipated ways. Using the example of the German Federal Cartel Office’s investigation into Facebook’s data-gathering practices, the article illustrates how direct consumer influence may clarify the relationship between data protection, consumer rights, and competition law.

scholarly journals Uber: A New Challenge for Regulation and Competition Law?

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margherita Colangelo ◽  
Mariateresa Maggiolino
Keyword(s):  
Competition Law ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Transport Services ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
Competition Laws ◽  
Software Platforms

The rise of new software platforms presents regulators and antitrust agencies all over the world with a challenge. Should regulations adapt to the new services of the digital economy? Should competition law change its paradigm in relation to the sharing economy? Despite the growing expansion of these services, in most countries there is still no regulatory framework addressing these problems. Uber is the most emblematic example of this phenomenon. Indeed, it is subject to a large number of ongoing lawsuits merging many issues, ranging from questions pertaining to labour law of problems connected with unfair competition laws. This article first analyses the particular business model adopted by Uber and the antitrust concerns that it could raise. In so doing, the article pays heed to the approach that antitrust authorities should take towards the complex rivalry between (regulates) incumbents and (unregulated) new entrants. The article then considers the legal nature of the services provided by Uber, i.e. whether should be considered as transport services or as services of the information society. Either way, the chosen characterisation will affect the law applied to all digital platforms. The analysis, which adopts a comparative approach, focuses on the European context where national courts are in great turnmoil and the CJEU will be issuing a preliminary ruling on the nature of Uber services.

Putting trust into antitrust? Competition policy and data-driven platforms

2021 ◽  
pp. 026732312110283
Author(s):  
Stefan Larsson
Keyword(s):  
Competition Policy ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Data Handling ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Platform Governance ◽  
Consumer Autonomy ◽  
The Relationship

Anti-competitive notions, it seems, are increasingly informing the critical debate on a data-driven economy organised into scalable digital platforms. Issues of market definitions, how to value personal data on multisided platforms, and how to detect and regulate misuses of dominant positions have become key nomenclature on the battlefield of addressing fairness in our contemporary digital societies. This article looks at the central themes for this special issue on governing trust in European platform societies through the lens of contemporary developments in the field of competition law. Three main questions are addressed: (1) To what extent are the platforms’ own abilities to govern their infrastructures, that is, to be de facto regulators over both human behaviour and market circumstances, a challenge for contemporary competition regulation? (2) In what way is the collection, aggregation, or handling of consumers’ data of relevance for competition? (3) How can the particular European challenges of governing US-based digital platforms more broadly be understood in terms of the relationship between transparency and public trust? Of particular relevance – and challenge – here are the platforms’ abilities to govern their infrastructures, albeit through automated moderation, pricing or scalable data handling. It is argued that this aspect of coded, and possibly autonomously adapting, intra-platform governance, poses significant anti-competitive challenges for supervisory authorities, with possible negative implications for consumer autonomy and wellbeing as well as platform-dependent other companies.

scholarly journals Harmonization of Competition Law: Research on The Transplantability of eu’s Law into ASEAN

Yuridika ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 613
Author(s):  
Reni Budi Setianingrum ◽  
M. Hawin
Keyword(s):  
Competition Law ◽  
Economic Community ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Asean Member ◽  
New Business ◽  
National Competition ◽  
Potential Contact ◽  
Competition Laws ◽  
Asean Economic Community

ASEAN has agreed to run a single market through the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The consequence of this free flow of goods and services is the emergence of new business competition, new relevant markets and potential contact amongst business actor of ASEAN member and it is possible to create unfair business competition. The implementation of the AEC also has consequences in the field of regulation, specifically the need for harmonization of regulations on competition law in ASEAN member to overcome the problems of cross-border transactions and the absence of competition law in several ASEAN member. This study uses a normative juridical method and aims to examine harmonization of competition law, a research on the transplantability of EU’s law into ASEAN. Results of this research shows that ASEAN can only adopt the European Union's supranationalism system only for cases of violations of cross border competition law, whereas for cases of violations of national competition laws, each country is given sovereignty to apply its own law. This is because the economic characteristics and legal characteristics of business competition vary between ASEAN member countries.

O Direito do Trabalho (des)conectado nas plataformas digitais

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 246-266
Author(s):  
Murilo Carvalho Sampaio Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Economic Condition ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Business Activity ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Conditions Of Work

RESUMO:Este artigo trata dos impactos das plataformas digitais no Direito do Trabalho, tomando como exemplo sintomático o padrão da plataforma Uber. Inicia discutindo o cenário da economia digital e suas transformações nos modos de organizar a atividade empresarial, caracterizando a disrupção destas tecnologias e examinando criticamente se tais inovações situam-se realmente no discurso de economia do compartilhamento. Adiante, aborda as condições fáticas das plataformas de trabalho, questionando a dimensão formal-jurídica de liberdade e a condição econômica de hipossuficiência. Examina o caso da Uber como paradigma do modelo de organização empresarial desta economia digital e a situação dos seus motoristas tidos como parceiros para, ao final, pontuar algumas conclusões a cerca da necessidade do Direito Trabalho estar conectado com essas novas relações sociaisABSTRACT:This article deals with the impact of digital platforms in Labor Law, taking as a symptomatic example the standards of the Uber platform. It begins by discussing the the digital economy scenario and its transformations in the way business activity organize itself, characterizing the disruption of these technologies and critically examining whether such innovations are really part of the sharing economy speech. Hereinafter, it addresses the factual conditions of work platforms, questioning the formal-legal dimension of freedom and the economic condition of hypo-sufficiency. It examines the case of Uber as a paradigm of a business model organization in the digital economy and the situation of its drivers, taken as partners in order to, in the end of it, point some conclusions about the need of Labor Law to be connected with these new social relationships.

Analysis of integrated development of digital economy with the Heilongjiang Province’s cross-border E-commerce with Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 93 (4) ◽  
pp. 16-23
Author(s):  
Song Linlin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Heilongjiang Province ◽  
Integrated Development ◽  
Development Status ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Internet Economy ◽  
Comparative Advantages

Since the establishment of the China (Heilongjiang) pilot free trade zone, the development of cross-border e-commerce with Russia has continued to increase speed and quality. With its geographical advantages and its comparative advantages in the Internet field, Heilongjiang Province promoted the rapid development of the Internet economy in Russia, fostered a new digital trade format represented by cross-border e-commerce, and promoted online and offline collaborative promotion of customs clearance logistics and financial services. The paper expounds foundation and development status of Heilongjiang Province’s cross-border e-commerce, analyzes in integrated development of digital economy with the Heilongjiang Province’s cross-border e-commerce with Russia, and further puts forward prospects and recommendations.

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