Too little too late?

ABSTRACT The “competitive strength” of a company in the digital economy is becoming increasingly more reliant on the data it has at its disposal. As such, personal data has been described as “the new oil of the internet and the new currency of the digital world”. The emergence of personal data as “currency” has reinvigorated the development of privacy and consumer protection laws However, competition law has sought to maintain a strict level of separation between what falls within the “scope” of antitrust enforcement and matters deemed “wholly or partially” unrelated to competition. In highlighting the anti-competitive effects created by the vast databases of personal and often sensitive information (Big Data) being acquired by today's dominant internet platforms. this paper seeks to argue that a more refined and comprehensive analysis of the competitive effects of data in merger review is lacking and is required as a matter of urgency.