ANTITRUST IN THE NEW ECONOMY CASE GOOGLE INC. AGAINST ECONOMIC COMPETITION ON WEB. Paper published in the Journal Mexican Law Review, of the Institute of Legal Research-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (original) (raw)

THE ROLE OF DATA IN MERGERS The need to define a relevant market for data

This paper addresses the role of data in the competitive process, with a focus on mergers between online service providers, including search engines and social networks. It analyses whether mergers between companies owning large datasets amount to a competitive advantage and create barriers to entry through the lens of the European Commission`s data-related merger decisions in the online environment.

Online Platforms and the EU Digital Single Market

Our submission to the U.K. House of Lords, Internal Market Sub-Committee is based on our joint research, which explores the effects Big Data and technology have on competition dynamics. It reviews the use of technology to facilitate collusion, conscious parallelism, and unilateral price discrimination as well as the effects of online and mobile platforms. Our submission addresses the following issues: • What role does data play in the business model of online platforms? • Can data-driven online platforms have excessive market power? • If so, how can they abuse this power? • If so, how does this happen and what effect does it create? • Is European competition law able adequately to address abuse by online platforms?

THE THEORY OF ABUSE IN GOOGLE SEARCH: A POSITIVE AND NORMATIVE ASSESSMENT UNDER EU COMPETITION LAW

In its investigation into Google's search practices, Google Search, the Commission alleges that Google abuses its dominant position on the web search market by giving systematic favourable treatment to its " comparison shopping product " (namely, " Google Shopping ") in its general search results pages. This Article analyses whether the conduct in question in Google Search can be an abuse under Article 102TFEU (prohibiting the abuse of a dominant position in the EU) and, if so, under what conditions. This Article proceeds by first providing a positive assessment of the application of Article 102TFEU and the relevant case law to the issues involved in Google Search on the assumption that the Commission may seek to place the facts under an existing category of abuse. Three categories of abuse are analysed to this end: refusal to deal (including the essential facilities doctrine), discrimination, and tying. The article then proceeds to a normative assessment of the circumstances under which Article 102TFEU should be applied in Google Search under a principled conceptualisation of " abuse, " one which requires exploitation, exclusion, and a lack of an increase in efficiency. The Article finds that the facts in Google Search do not meet the requirements of the existing law to be found abusive unless the established frameworks for the types of abuse examined are unjustifiably disrupted. It also finds that under the principled conceptualisation of abuse adopted in this Article, the facts in Google Search do not represent the type of conduct that should be found abusive either.

Beyond Innovation and Competition: The Need for Qualified Transparency in Internet Intermediaries

2010

Abstract: Internet service providers and search engines have mapped the web, accelerated e-commerce, and empowered new communities. They also pose new challenges for law. Individuals are rapidly losing the ability to affect their own image on the web-or even to know what data are presented about them. When web users attempt to find information or entertainment, they have little assurance that a carrier or search engine is not biasing the presentation of results in accordance with its own commercial interests.