ORCID
Monika Woźniak-Cichuta - 0000-0001-7000-1365
Keywords
competition law, digital markets, digital platforms, gatekeepers, merger control, remedies
Abstract
The article contributes to the current debate on the interplay between the data economy and competition law. First, on the basis of theories of harm related to datadriven merger, it is stated that such transactions require a particular assessment in merger control proceedings, rather than having them cleared unconditionally during phase 1. Such examination should take into consideration data-induced market power, not necessarily related to traditionally defined relevant markets. Therefore, it is postulated to take an ecosystem perspective on harm stemming from digital data-driven mergers. Second, the practice of the European Commission is outlined with regard to data-access remedies. It is also indicated that sharing data – a core of the economic power of Big Tech – has the potential to be an efficient merger remedy in data-driven mergers. Third, the article analyses how such datasharing obligations could be formulated, that is, which undertakings should have access to data of a digital conglomerate, taking into account various factors, such as the asymmetry of collected data and entry barriers. Overall, it is recommended to make greater use of existing EU merger control tools in implementing the EU data-sharing policy, by considering an imposition of data-sharing remedies in digital data-driven mergers. An intervention of a competition authority that facilitates data-access, may contribute to the creation of competitive and innovative digital markets.
Acknowledgements
The article has been prepared within the project ‘Business-to-business data-sharing within the EU digital market’ funded by Polish National Science Centre (Project no. 2018/31/B/ HS5/01192). Views and opinions expressed in the article are of the author. All comments and criticism are welcome at e-mail: mj.wozniak7@uw.edu.pl
Funding
This article received no funding The cost of editing selected articles published in the Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies in the 2022–2024 is covered by funding under the program “Development of scientific journals” of the Ministry of Education and Science under agreement No. RCN/SN/0324/2021/1. Task title: “Verification and correction of scientific articles and their abstracts”. Funding value: 36 298,00 PLN; The task consists of professional editing of articles published in English.
Declaration of Conflict of interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article.
Declaration about the scope of AI utilisation
The author did not use AI tools in the preparation of this article.
Recommended Citation
Woźniak-Cichuta, M. (2024). Digital Data-Driven Mergers: Is a Data-Sharing Remedy a Panacea?. Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 17(29), 9-47. https://doi.org/10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2024.17.29.1
First Page
9
Last Page
47
Page Count
39
DOI
10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2024.17.29.1
JEL Code
K20, K21, K24, K41, K42
Publisher
University of Warsaw
