Data Privacy and Competition Law in the Age of Big Data: Unpacking the Interface Through Complexity Science

The monetization of personal data has become an increasingly common business practice, igniting global debate on the interface between data privacy law and competition law. Data Privacy and Competition Law in the Age of Big Data provides a comprehensive, novel, and interdisciplinary analysis of this nexus. Drawing insights from emergent properties and complexity science, the book exposes the commonalities and conflicts between how data privacy law and competition law address challenges resulting from the commercialization of personal data.

Samson Y. Esayas begins by identifying key shifts in big data: the growing trend of processing personal data for diverse purposes, the aggregation of data across various operations, and the shift from offering stand-alone products and services to ecosystems of several, with personal data central in connecting the different markets. These shifts engender a complex economic landscape, marked by multiple actors, a web of interactions, and non-linear, emergent outcomes. Despite this complexity, the prevailing approach to data privacy law and competition law emphasises isolated units of analysis-whether a relevant market or a distinct processing operation. This approach overlooks system-wide (emergent) risks borne of cumulative processing operations and cross-market practices. Additionally, a mindset focused on either data privacy law or competition law overlooks the increasing intersection between the two regimes, missing opportunities for synergy.

In light of these challenges, Esayas’s volume calls for recalibrating data privacy law and competition law for a complex economy, emphasizing a holistic, systems-level perspective that addresses emergent harms and a polycentric strategy that leverages the strengths of each legal regime.

Samson Y. Esayas, Associate Professor of Law, BI Norwegian Business School

Dr Samson Y. Esayas is an Associate Professor at BI Norwegian Business School and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. He teaches on topics of data protection law, AI regulation, and competition law. His research explores the power dynamics stemming from control over data and mediated communications, with a focus on how these evolving power paradigms are addressed by competition and data privacy law. Dr Esayas has published in several renowned journals covering these issues and his work has received international recognition, including the FPF Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award. He earned his PhD from the University of Oslo in 2020 and his dissertation was awarded His Majesty the King’s Gold Medal for outstanding research by the Norwegian monarchy. He was a visiting researcher at Berkman Klein Center in 2023.