Data Privacy and Competition Law in the Age of Big Data
Samson Y. Esayas, Associate Professor of Law, BI Norwegian Business School
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.
Overview:
Provides a comprehensive analysis of the interface between data privacy law and competition law in addressing challenges arising from the commercialization of data
Uses emergent properties and complexity science to deepen our understanding of the intersection between the two legal regimes
Offers concrete policy proposals to address the challenges of big data
Presents a detailed assessment of the role of privacy as a non-price competition parameter, including privacy issues under EU merger control, rules on anti-competitive collaboration, and abuse of dominance
Oxford Data Protection & Privacy Law
The book description is from Oxford University Press: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/data-privacy-and-competition-law-in-the-age-of-big-data-9780198891420?cc=no&lang=en&