Published Online:January 2026
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Law Review
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IUPLR020126
DOI:10.71329/IUPLR/2026.16.1.27-34
Author Name:Sumathi K and G Subhalakshmi
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Law
Download Format:PDF
Pages:27-34
Industrialization and globalization have played a crucial role in a nation’s economic growth, leading to increased competition among business entities and the rise of anti-competitive practices. This laid the foundation for the development of modern competition law, to regulate the anti-competitive conduct of businesses, promote consumer welfare, and ensure fair competition. Later, the advances in technology and digitalization transformed the market structure and consumer behavior, leading to the emergence of platform-based digital markets operating across nations. This development led companies to collect, process, store, and utilize consumers’ data to enhance their business strategies. Most digital platforms offer free services, however, these services are not genuinely free—implicitly, they collect users’ data. Hence, the interplay between competition and data has raised concerns about data privacy, consumer choice, and other data-related anti-competitive practices in the digital markets. The paper examines the complex and evolving nature of data-driven digital markets, and the increasing connection between data and competition.
Most large companies such as Google, Facebook and others provide free services and in return collects users’ data. It is noted that “if information about ourselves really is the price we pay for content, why should not antitrust limit companies’ ability to collect and analyze consumer data?” (Cooper, 2013). There is a growing concern about data and its implications for competition law, as jurisdictions such as the EU, UK, US and Australia have included data collected by digital companies as a subject of competition in the form of non-price harm.