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.

Contents:

Foreword by Lee A. Bygrave
Introduction

Part I: Data Privacy and Competition Law in the Age of Big Data
1: Data Privacy and Competition Law in the Age of Big Data

Part II: Emergent Properties in Data Privacy Law and Competition Law
2: The Idea of Emergent Properties in Data Privacy Law
3: Digital Ecosystems, Emergent Harms, and the Need for a Holistic Approach in Competition Law

Part III: Harnessing Complexity to Understand the Interface
4: The Interface Between Data Privacy and Competition Law: Insights from Complexity Science
5: Merger Control and Theories of Harm on Data Privacy as a Non-Price Parameter
6: Privacy Fixing and Other Forms of Anticompetitive Cooperation on Privacy
7: Excessive Data Collection and Unfair Privacy Policies as Forms of Abuse of Dominance
8: Regulating a Complex Economy: Beyond the Atomistic and Either/or Approaches