Research On The Protection Of Platform Data Rights By Competition Law

With the rapid development of Internet economy,big data has become one of the hottest competitive factors.Some network operators aim at the dominant data of the network platform,and damage the legitimate data rights and interests of the network platform through active acquisition or negative influence.Such behaviors violate business ethics,disrupt competition order and infringe the legitimate rights and interests of online platforms.However,due to the particularity of network platform data,the relevant norms in traditional civil law are difficult to provide comprehensive and effective protection for network platform data rights and interests.In the era of big data,protecting the data rights and interests of the network platform has important and far-reaching significance: first,there are constantly behaviors that infringe on the data rights and interests of the network platform in judicial practice,and due to the particularity of cyberspace,such behaviors are exploding.This will bring great adverse effects to the network platform itself or the network market.Therefore,protecting the data rights and interests of the network platform by competition law can effectively curb the occurrence of such behaviors.Secondly,reasonable arrangement of the data rights and interests of the network platform will help to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the network platform and restore the fair competition order in the network market.In addition to the introduction,this paper analyzes the rationality of competition law to protect the data rights and interests of network platform from the following four parts,and puts forward some suggestions for improvement.The first part combs the meaning and legal nature of network platform data.Firstly,different scholars’ different understandings of the meaning of data and network platform data are expounded,and on this basis,the meaning and characteristics of network platform data are clarified through comparison and summary.Secondly,it explains different academic theories about the legal nature of network platform data,namely,the theory of property rights,the theory of intellectual property rights,the theory of trade secrets,the theory of intangible property and the theory of competitive interests.In view of the intangibility,scarcity and characteristics of network platform data,it analyzes and compares these theories,and then determines the competitive attributes of network platform data.The second part introduces the typological behavior of infringing the data rights and interests of the network platform and the dilemma of protecting the data rights and interests of the network platform by civil law.By summarizing the cases involving the data rights and interests of the network platform in recent years,it is concluded that the types of behaviors that infringe the data rights and interests of the network platform can be divided into improper data grabbing,traffic interception and other behaviors that interfere with other people’s network products and services.Under the framework of traditional civil law,there are many obstacles to protect the rights and interests of network platform data: because the originality of network platform data in the process of data arrangement is extremely small,it is difficult to be protected by Copyright Law;With the increasing circulation and shareability of network platform data,it is difficult to identify network platform data as trade secrets.At the same time,the Contract Law can’t stop the counterparty from re-circulating the acquired network platform data;In addition,there is a great value conflict between the legislative purpose of Property Law and the protection of data rights and interests of network platform.The third part explains the correspondence between the characteristics of data rights infringement on the network platform and the applicable competition law.Based on the analysis of the characteristics of infringement of data rights and interests of network platform,this paper holds that it is necessary and feasible to protect data rights and interests of network platform through competition law.That is,to protect the rights and interests of network platform data by competition law is not only the need to balance data flow and data competition,but also the requirement to correct the proprietary protection mode of network platform data,and it is also the need to get out of the misunderstanding of compulsory sharing of network platform data and an effective way to balance the interests of all parties.Because there is a competitive relationship between the infringer and the network platform and the infringement of the data rights and interests of the network platform is unfair,it is feasible to apply the competition law.The fourth part focuses on the judicial practice and the design of the competition law itself,and puts forward targeted suggestions to improve the protection of data rights and interests in the network platform from the perspectives of legislation,justice and law enforcement.In terms of legislative protection,we should make clear the competitive interest attribute of network platform data,add provisions prohibiting unfair competition against data rights and interests of network platform,and improve the system of damages;At the level of judicial protection,we should introduce the prohibition system,make clear the reasonable way to judge the rights and interests of network platform data,and improve the judicial protection of network platform data;In the aspect of law enforcement protection,we should constantly improve the level of administrative law enforcement and give full play to the supervisory role of industry self-regulatory organizations.