Personal data as price in market definition: a brief assessment

Eben, M. (2021) Personal data as price in market definition: a brief assessment. CPI Antitrust Chronicle, 2021(Sep II),

Abstract

Services offered by Google, Facebook, and their kin are not truly free: users contribute to the monetization of the platform. The question is not wheth-er a market can be defined for zero-price services, but rather how this should be done. This short piece assesses whether personal data can be conceptualized as a price, to enable a substitution analysis for zero-price services. To do so, the piece focuses on the notion of price and its role in quantitative substitution analysis (when consumers react to price changes) in the context of personal data. It makes a reflection on the feasibility of conceptualizing personal data as a price. This would require answering two questions: first, is there a relationship of exchange between the user and the platform; second, can reactions to changes in personal data collection be used to assess substitution. The piece then briefly considers a revised SSNIP test with personal data

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: No
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Eben, Dr Magali
• Authors: Eben, M.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory; K Law > K Law (General)
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Journal Name: CPI Antitrust Chronicle
• Publisher: Competition Policy International
• ISSN: 2168-1155
• ISSN (Online): 2168-1155
• Published Online: 27 September 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © Competition Policy International, Inc. 2021
• First Published: First published in CPI Antitrust Chronicle 2021(Sep II)
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the publisher