Big Tech, Small Tech, And The Data Economy: What Role For Eu Competition Law?

The role that competition law plays (or should play) in the data economy has been at the center of the policy debate in multiple countries. The proliferation of data into different fields of the economy presents a tremendous opportunity for economic growth. Data permits companies to improve the quality of the products and services that they offer to consumers. It also enables companies to reduce their costs, increase their efficiency, and identify new business opportunities. Reliance on data can therefore enhance the competitiveness of firms and the economy more generally. However, there is a concern that the data economy has given rise to increasingly concentrated markets, where a small number of firms has gained disproportionate market power. Some commentators have argued that the reason for the emergence of large firms with highly entrenched market positions is the weak enforcement of competition law that has failed to keep up with the development of the data economy. Those comments have initiated a general debate that has by now spread across many continents and that questions whether there is a need to strengthen, or at least revise, the enforcement of competition law to promote the development of a competitive data economy