Big Data And Tech Dominance: Regulation Through Competition Law
- IJLLR Journal
- Apr 22
- 1 min read
Ishika Gupta, Amity University Noida
“The flow of data is crucial to the well-being of companies in a data-driven economy, but needs, nevertheless, to be reconciled with other interests in order to maximize the social welfare.”
- Sofia Oliveira Pais
ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of digital platforms and data-driven business models has transformed global markets. Large technology companies increasingly derive their market power from their ability to collect, process, and monetize massive volumes of data. This concentration of data creates significant barriers to entry, strengthens network effects, and enables dominant firms to entrench their positions across multiple markets. Traditional competition law frameworks, designed primarily for price-based markets, often struggle to address these developments because many digital services are offered for free while competition occurs through data acquisition, innovation, and user attention.
This paper examines the relationship between big data and market dominance in the digital economy. It analyzes how data concentration contributes to anti- competitive conduct, including exclusionary practices, predatory acquisitions, self-preferencing, and exploitative data collection. The paper further evaluates how competition authorities in different jurisdictions, particularly the European Union, the United States, India, and the United Kingdom, are adapting legal frameworks to regulate dominant digital firms.
The paper argues that competition law remains one of the most important regulatory tools for controlling the power of large technology firms, but it must evolve to address the unique characteristics of data-driven markets. New approaches such as ex ante regulation, interoperability mandates, data portability, and stronger merger scrutiny are necessary to preserve competition in the digital economy.
Keywords: Big Data, Competition Law, Digital Markets, Market Dominance, Data Monopolies, Antitrust, Digital Platforms.
