Browsing by Subject "Competition Law"
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(2023)This master's thesis investigates the role of competition law in addressing the issue of excessive data collection and its implications in the context of big data. With the rapid shift towards a data-driven economy, the significance of data protection has grown exponentially, prompting an examination of its interconnectedness with competition policy. Although consumers have access to free products and services, the absence of monetary costs raises concerns about the need for appropriate action and regulation. The thesis argues that a competition policy solely focused on prices may overlook potential welfare harms linked to non-price factors like privacy and consumer choice. Moreover, it contends that excessive data collection can be deemed anticompetitive under EU competition law. The main research objectives of this thesis revolve around exploring whether excessive data collection can be classified as exploitative abuse under competition law and, if so, how it can be addressed. The findings reveal existing inadequacies in competition law and propose potential avenues for competition policy to combat excessive data collection effectively. The suggested approach aims to extend competition law's intervention beyond a narrow focus on prices and integrate a framework based on fair trading conditions and privacy considerations. The topicality and relevance of this research are evident in the current digital economy landscape. By providing a comprehensive examination of competition policy's implications in the era of big data, with a particular emphasis on personal data, this thesis contributes valuable insights and policy considerations to ongoing discussions. Notably, it goes beyond previous articles by encompassing various theories of harm and privacy as quality parameter. Overall, this thesis enriches the understanding of competition law's role in managing excessive data collection, safeguarding consumer welfare, and promoting fair practices in the digital age.
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Privacy as the Price of Free Digital Services : - Applying EU Competition Law on Digital Platforms (2023)The purpose of my thesis is to study the interrelationship between privacy and competition law in the context of the digital economy by evaluating both current and possible future paths of development. A starting point for the research is the assumption that digitisation and datafication have transformed market dynamics and created a pressure to integrate perspectives from the traditionally separate regimes of privacy and competition law. The research mixes doctrinal and legal theoretical methods to figure out how the privacy-competition law interrelationship has been construed in the EU competition case law so far, and how it should ideally be developed in the future, from the perspective of the goal of non-dominance, a conception of freedom developed within the political philosophy of republicanism which I argue forms the main underlying objective of both privacy and competition law. I will argue that developments in the case law show a continuous movement away from so-called separationists accounts of the privacy-competition interrelationship towards increasing integrationism. I will further argue that this is, especially if combined with new data-centered special legislation, the likely optimal development from a non-dominance point of view.
Now showing items 1-2 of 2