scholarly journals Towards Smarter Regulation in the Areas of Competition, Data Protection and Consumer Law: Why Greater Power Should Come with Greater Responsibility

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Inge GRAEF ◽  
Sean VAN BERLO
Keyword(s):  
Market Power ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Consumer Law ◽  
Dominant Firms ◽  
Positive Duties ◽  
Data Protection Law ◽  
Enforcement Mechanisms ◽  
Special Responsibility ◽  
Scope Of Protection ◽  
Existing Data

Based on a mix of conceptual insights and findings from cases, this paper discusses three ways in which the effectiveness of regulation in the areas of competition, data and consumer protection can be improved by tailoring substantive protections and enforcement mechanisms to the extent of market power held by firms. First, it is analysed how market power can be integrated into the substantive scope of protection of data protection and consumer law, drawing inspiration from competition law’s special responsibility for dominant firms. Second, it is illustrated how more asymmetric and smarter enforcement of existing data protection rules against firms possessing market power can strengthen the protection of data subjects and stimulate competition based on lessons from priority-setting and cooperation by consumer authorities. Third, it is explored how competition law’s special responsibility for dominant firms can be further strengthened in analogy with the principle of accountability in data protection law. Similarly, it is discussed how positive duties to ensure fair outcomes for consumers are developed in consumer law. The analysis offers lessons for improving the ability of the three regimes to protect consumers by imposing greater responsibility on firms with greater market power and thus posing greater risks for consumer harm.

scholarly journals Mobility Should Be Fun. A Consumer (Law) Perspective on Border Check Technology

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 490-502
Author(s):  
Paul De Hert ◽  
Rocco Bellanova
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Consumer Law ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Safety Technology ◽  
Data Protection Law ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
As If

After 9/11, states looked at transportation as if it was a matter of paying taxes: “We cannot make it fun, but we can make it efficient.” When traveling, we are asked to pass on data, give body samples, and pass through body scanners in the name of the general interest and in the name of our safety. Technology complements existing human checks and controls. Here we take a fresh look at the new security apparatuses and make transportation of humans more passenger-centered. Consumer protection law might help to complement the existing use of data protection law principles by citizen organizations. It should be possible to satisfy consumer needs, without forgetting the perspective of the citizen.

Exploitative abuses in digital markets: between competition law and data protection law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Caroline Buiten
Keyword(s):  
Market Power ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Data Privacy ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Data Protection Law ◽  
Collection Practices ◽  
Abuse Of Dominance

Abstract Online platforms increasingly offer consumers services ‘for free’, in exchange for collecting consumers’ personal data. This business model is highly successful, leading some online platforms to gain substantial market power. This market power can cause consumer harm—not through higher prices, but in the form of privacy harm. This article considers what role competition law and data protection law can play in mitigating this harm to privacy. The article considers how we can conceptualize exploitative abuse of dominance cases in zero-price markets. The article calls into question if data protection laws should play a role in antitrust abuse assessments, against the background of the Bundeskartellamt antitrust investigation into Facebook’s data collection practices. The article argues that, even in digital markets that unequivocally link market power with data privacy concerns, competition law and data protection law have complementary but distinct roles to play.

Data Processing as an Abuse of Market Power in Multi-Sided Markets. The More Competition-Oriented Approach in the German Federal Supreme Court’s Interim Decision KVR 69/19 – Facebook

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark-Oliver Mackenrodt
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Market Power ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Competition Authority ◽  
Data Protection Law ◽  
Court Proceedings ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Federal Supreme

Abstract The relationship between competition law and data protection law has been a highly controversial issue following the German Competition Authority’s (Bundeskartellamt, hereinafter ‘Competition Authority’) decision with regard to Facebook’s data processing policy. The Competition Authority’s theory of harm was centered around an exploitative abuse of market power through the imposition of a data processing policy which is in conflict with the data protection rules. In the interim court proceedings, the OLG Düsseldorf criticized the Competition Authority’s decision. The German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof, hereinafter ‘Federal Supreme Court’) upheld the Competition Authority’s decision. However, the Federal Supreme Court did not derive the exploitative abuse primarily from a mere violation of data protection law. Instead, the Court referred to the users’ lack of freedom of choice. The Court developed a modified theory of harm by identifying elements of an exploitative abuse but also of an exclusionary abuse. The Court’s line of argument is more competition-oriented and accounts for the particular economic features of multi-sided markets. In this line of reasoning, an actual violation of the data protection rules is not a necessary prerequisite for finding a violation of competition law.

Datenschutzrechtsverstöße als kartellrechtlicher Konditionenmissbrauch

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Barth
Keyword(s):  
Market Power ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Antitrust Law ◽  
Legal Question ◽  
Market Dominance ◽  
Data Protection Law

The German Federal Cartel Office´s decision stating that Facebook violated antitrust law by breaching the Data Protection Law is highly controversial. Is it possible to ground an abuse of market dominance on Data Protection Law violations? The author examines the formal, substantive and doctrinal issues of this legal question. By determining the scope and system of antitrust law, she establishes a number of criteria for deciding whether non-Antitrust Law breaches may justify an abuse of market power by use of unreasonable contractual terms. The monograph also addresses and evaluates the competence-related problems deriving from two different authorities examining the same Data Protection Law violations. The author concludes that non-antitrust law breaches may constitute an abuse of market power under circumstances present in the case of Data Protection Law, but that cartel authorities in Europe lack the competence to determine a breach of the GDPR themselves.

scholarly journals Grappling with “Data Power”: Normative Nudges from Data Protection and Privacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orla Lynskey
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Market Power ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Digital Ecosystem ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Special Responsibility

Abstract The power exercised by technology companies is attracting the attention of policymakers, regulatory bodies and the general public. This power can be categorized in several ways, ranging from the “soft power” of technology companies to influence public policy agendas to the “market power” they may wield to exclude equally efficient competitors from the marketplace. This Article is concerned with the “data power” exercised by technology companies occupying strategic positions in the digital ecosystem. This data power is a multifaceted power that may overlap with economic (market) power but primarily entails the power to profile and the power to influence opinion formation. While the current legal framework for data protection and privacy in the EU imposes constraints on personal data processing by technology companies, it ostensibly does so without regard to whether or not they have “data power.” This Article probes this assumption. It argues that although this legal framework does not explicitly impose additional legal responsibilities on entities with “data power,” it provides a clear normative indication to do so. The volume and variety of data and the reach of data-processing operations seem to be relevant when assessing both the extent of obligations on technology companies and the impact of data processing on individual rights. The Article suggests that this finding provides the normative foundation for the imposition of a “special responsibility” on such firms, analogous to the “special responsibility” imposed by competition law on dominant companies with market power. What such a “special responsibility” might entail in practice will be briefly outlined and relevant questions for future research will be identified.

Legal Issues for DRM

2009 ◽  
pp. 314-334
Author(s):  
Vagelis Papakonstantinou
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Consumer Law ◽  
Data Protection Law

DRM systems have been implemented in the past few years by the Content Industry as the panacea against all copyright (and Intellectual Property Rights in general) infringements over the Internet. The validity of this statement shall be assessed in this analysis, identifying its strengths and record to-date and highlighting its shortcomings in an increasingly complex e-commerce (Web 2.0) environment. While doing this, particular attention shall be given to (mostly EU) Intellectual Property Law, Consumer Law, Data Protection Law, and Competition Law.

scholarly journals Data Trusts and the Governance of Smart Environments: Lessons from the Failure of Sidewalk Labs’ Urban Data Trust

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-261
Author(s):  
Lisa Austin ◽  
David Lie
Keyword(s):  
Data Protection ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Smart Environments ◽  
Complex Data ◽  
Data Governance ◽  
Data Protection Law ◽  
Existing Data ◽  
Urban Data

Data trusts are an increasingly popular proposal for managing complex data governance questions, although what they are remains contested. Sidewalk Labs proposed creating an “Urban Data Trust” as part of the Sidewalk Toronto “smart” redevelopment of a portion of Toronto’s waterfront. This part of its proposal was rejected before Sidewalk Labs cancelled the project. This research note briefly places the Urban Data Trust within the general debate regarding data trusts and then discusses one set of reasons for its failure: its incoherence as a model. The Urban Data Trust was a failed model because it lacked clarity regarding the nature of the problem(s) to which it is a solution, how accountability and oversight are secured, and its relation to existing data protection law. These are important lessons for the more general debate regarding data trusts and their role in data governance.  

Importance of Personal Data Protection Law for Commercial Air Transport

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
Dawid Zadura
Keyword(s):  
Data Protection ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Air Transport ◽  
Civil Aviation ◽  
Aviation Industry ◽  
Personal Data Protection ◽  
It Systems ◽  
Data Protection Law ◽  
The Law

Abstract In the review below the author presents a general overview of the selected contemporary legal issues related to the present growth of the aviation industry and the development of aviation technologies. The review is focused on the questions at the intersection of aviation law and personal data protection law. Massive processing of passenger data (Passenger Name Record, PNR) in IT systems is a daily activity for the contemporary aviation industry. Simultaneously, since the mid- 1990s we can observe the rapid growth of personal data protection law as a very new branch of the law. The importance of this new branch of the law for the aviation industry is however still questionable and unclear. This article includes the summary of the author’s own research conducted between 2011 and 2017, in particular his audits in LOT Polish Airlines (June 2011-April 2013) and Lublin Airport (July - September 2013) and the author’s analyses of public information shared by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Air Transport Association (IATA), Association of European Airlines (AEA), Civil Aviation Authority (ULC) and (GIODO). The purpose of the author’s research was to determine the applicability of the implementation of technical and organizational measures established by personal data protection law in aviation industry entities.

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