The role of privacy in merger control: Limiting principles, theories of harm, and operationalisation

Elias Deutscher

Chapter 10 in Research Handbook on Data, Privacy and Competition Law, 2025, pp 235-265 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter aims to develop a systematic and coherent framework for the analysis of privacy in the competitive assessment of mergers. The chapter makes three contributions. First, it develops a limiting principle to address the question of whether, and if so, when privacy considerations constitute a competition-relevant concern that should be accounted for by merger assessment. Second, it develops several theories of harm as to how mergers might adversely affect privacy in a way that is relevant for competition law analysis. Third, it offers an operationalisation of the limiting principle and the various privacy-related theories of harm to enable competition authorities to ascertain and measure the adverse effect of mergers on privacy as part of their merger analysis. In addressing these points, the chapter also provides an overview of the state-of-the art of the academic literature and decisional practice of competition authorities regarding the role of privacy in merger cases.

Keywords: Privacy; Merger control; Non-price parameter of competition; Merger-induced privacy harm; Theories of harm; Limiting principles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781802202328
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