Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Competition law could be means to address privacy concerns, Vestager suggests, (Jan 20, 2016)

By Brian Hammond,TR Daily

The European Commission’s antitrust commissioner says it has become “very difficult” to preserve the appropriate balance between protecting privacy and enabling new data-intensive online services and suggested that competition enforcement could be used to address privacy concerns.

Speaking January 17 at the DLD Conference in Munich, Margrethe Vestager, European Commission-Competition, said people often tell her that they are worried about how companies are using their data. “I take those worries very seriously,” she said. “Privacy is a fundamental part of our autonomy as individuals. We must have the right to decide who we share our information with, and for what purpose. But we also live in a time when we get major benefits from sharing our data. So striking the right balance has become very difficult.”

Ms. Vestager said the “incredibly powerful tools” such as search engines and social media are available for free because consumers have a “new currency that we can use to pay for them—our data.”

Although the “exchange rate between data and services” isn’t always obvious, it is clear that “these are business transactions, not free giveaways,” Ms. Vestager said. “So consumers have a right to be treated fairly, just as they would if they had paid in cash.”

Ms. Vestager said a recent survey found that less than a quarter of people trust online businesses to protect their personal information. “Some people say this is a competition problem,” she said. “They say that if the market worked properly, companies couldn’t get away with letting down their customers like this.”

“There may be some truth in that, though it doesn’t necessarily mean companies have broken the competition rules,” she added. “But for me, the real question isn’t whether companies are competing to offer more privacy—welcome as that is—but for us to have adequate data protection rules in place.” She also stated, “I don’t think we need to look to competition enforcement to fix privacy problems. But that doesn’t mean I will ignore genuine competition issues just because they have a link to data.”

Ms. Vestager added, however, that if “just a few companies control the data you need to satisfy customers and cut costs, that could give them the power to drive their rivals out of the market. And with less competition, there’s a risk that there won’t be enough incentive for companies to keep using big data to serve customers better.”

“If a company’s use of data is so bad for competition that it outweighs the benefits, we may have to step in to restore a level playing field,” she said.

“We continue to look carefully at this issue, but we haven’t found a competition problem yet,” Ms. Vestager added. “This certainly doesn’t mean we never will. But I hope it makes clear that we don’t need a whole new competition rulebook for the big data world. Just as we didn’t need one for a world of fax machines, or credit cards, or personal computers. What we do need is to pay close attention to these markets and to take action when it’s necessary.”

News: Antitrust Privacy