Regulating Data Monopolies (eBook)

This book analyzes the business model of enterprises in the digital economy by taking an economic and comparative perspective. The aim of this book is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the anti-competitive behavior of companies who monopolize data, and put forward the necessity of regulating data monopoly by exploring the causes and characteristics of their anti-competitive behavior. It studies four aspects of the differences between data monopoly and traditional monopolistic behavior, namely defining the relevant market for data monopolies, the entry barrier, the problem of determining the dominant position of data monopoly, and the influence on consumer welfare. It points out the limitations of traditional regulatory tools and discusses how new regulatory methods could be developed within the competition legal framework to restrict data monopolies. It proposes how economic analytical tools used in traditional anti-monopoly law are facing challenges and how competition enforcement agencies could adjust regulatory methods to deal with new anti-competitive behavior by data monopolies.

Dr. Jingyuan Ma is Assistant Professor of Law at Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, China. Jingyuan holds an LLM in Law and Economics from the University of Hamburg and the University of Ghent (2010), and a BA in Economics from Beijing Foreign Studies University (2009). She obtained her PhD from the University of Hamburg, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Bologna, taking part in the European Doctorate in Law and Economics programme (EDLE). Her teaching and research interests include comparative law, economic analysis of competition law, and law and society in East Asia. She has authored a monograph and several articles on comparative perspectives of competition policy in the USA, the EU, and China.

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This book analyzes the business model of enterprises in the digital economy by taking an economic and comparative perspective. The aim of this book is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the anti-competitive behavior of companies who monopolize data, and put forward the necessity of regulating data monopoly by exploring the causes and characteristics of their anti-competitive behavior. It studies four aspects of the differences between data monopoly and traditional monopolistic behavior, namely defining the relevant market for data monopolies, the entry barrier, the problem of determining the dominant position of data monopoly, and the influence on consumer welfare. It points out the limitations of traditional regulatory tools and discusses how new regulatory methods could be developed within the competition legal framework to restrict data monopolies. It proposes how economic analytical tools used in traditional anti-monopoly law are facing challenges and how competition enforcement agencies could adjust regulatory methods to deal with new anti-competitive behavior by data monopolies.