The antitrust privacy dilemma

Abstract

ABSTRACT Antitrust cases related to privacy are on the agenda of many competition authorities, including Europe and the United States. Antitrust and privacy is thus “one of the big topics of the year”, as stated by the former President of the French competition authority. While some antitrust cases concern a reduction in privacy protection, others concern an increase in privacy protection. In other words, user privacy can decrease or increase due to alleged anticompetitive practices. An antitrust privacy dilemma? From a law and economics standpoint, the paper solves this dilemma and proposes a new way of resolving antitrust cases related to privacy. Section 2 analyses the dilemma. It proposes an analytical framework. Section 3 proposes a new way of resolving cases. It suggests a coordinated participative approach with competition and non-competition regulators and stakeholders to address competition and privacy concerns with tailored remedies to what is necessary without eliminating pro-privacy effects.