Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: EC Commissioner Vestager discusses privacy, fair competition issues with data, (Sep 9, 2016)

By Michael Menzhuber, J.D., LL.M.

Privacy and fair competition challenges of data use was the topic of European Commission (EC) Commissioner of Competition Margrethe Vestager’s speech, which she gave at the Data Ethics event on Data as Power in Copenhagen on September 9, 2016.

Privacy. Vestager began her remarks, entitled "Making Data Work for Us," by explaining that consumers pay for search engines and social networks with their personal data. She then suggested that this is not a problem as long as consumers trust the companies collecting the data. After noting that trust is not there yet, she explained that the new rules on data protection adopted by the European Union earlier in the year are a crucial step forward in regaining trust.

The new General Data Protection Regulation will, according the Vestager, give people: (1) better control of their personal data; (2) the right to more information on how their data is used; and (3) the right to take their personal data with them when they change providers. Also, the new data protection rules will make sure that companies can work with big data without harming peoples’ privacy.

Vestager suggested that markets also can have a role in protecting data. She explained that when markets are competitive, everything that makes a company’s service more appealing, including better personal data protection, can help that company to compete. As such, the question for competition enforcers is whether they can help solve the problem of trust by making markets more competitive.

Fair competition. Vestager also discussed why privacy is not the only issue with data. She suggested that if data can help a company compete, then having the right set of data could make it almost impossible for anyone else to keep up. She then explained that the concern should not be whether a company holds a lot of data but, rather, whether it controls unique data that no one else has access to, which can be used to shut their rivals out of the market.

News: Antitrust Privacy CyberPrivacyFeed