Data-Driven Mergers: A Call for Further Integration of Dynamics Effects into Competition Analysis

Resumo

This report reviews data-driven mergers by focusing on two main competition challenges associated with them. Firstly, it analyses whether data-platforms may pose an unreplicable competitive advantage to entrants, and to what extend data-driven indirect network effects may harm competition and innovation. Secondly, it reviews the intersection between competition and privacy, and the quantification of the effects of quality reduction. The report argues that a more dynamic approach can contribute to address those challenges better than a pure static framework, and proposes a re-analysis of the European Commission’s merger decision regarding Facebook/WhatsApp to test whether its outcome would have changed if a more forward-looking analysis were taken into account. The report concludes by summarizing the main takeaways and proposing that dynamic effects, consumer choice, and merger control be analysed more holistically.