Research On Antitrust Regulation Of Data-driven Mergers And Acquisitions

In the era of digital economy,data contains huge competitive value and has become a new factor of production.Data-driven mergers and acquisitions for the purpose of obtaining data are frequent.Data-driven mergers and acquisitions create potential anti-competitive risks.For market competition,it will increase market entry barriers and damage the order of market competition;for other competitors or other potential competitors,the merged enterprise will implement data blocking behaviors and damage the interests of other competitors;for consumers,mergers and acquisitions will also reduce its welfare.Data-driven M&A is different from traditional M&A,which brings challenges to my country’s anti-monopoly M&A system.The superposition of commodity functions increases the difficulty of applying the traditional method of defining relevant markets.Most of the acquired companies are data-intensive start-ups,which have not yet generated or generated a relatively low turnover,and have not met the requirements for prior declaration of mergers and acquisitions.Therefore,mergers and acquisitions that have or may have the effect of eliminating or restricting competition will be a fish that escaped through the seine.Enterprises collect user data through data monopoly means such as data-driven mergers and acquisitions,abuse of market dominance,and exclude and restrict competitors.Such behavior violates both the monopoly law and the privacy interests of consumers.Privacy protection issues overlap with anti-monopoly.However,whether privacy protection can be included in the scope of application of anti-monopoly law is still controversial.At the same time,it is more difficult to apply structural remedies,and divesting part of the assets or businesses of the companies involved in mergers and acquisitions cannot effectively eliminate or reduce the effects that mergers and acquisitions have or may have to restrict or exclude competition.In order to meet the needs of the development of the digital economy,the anti-monopoly M&A system should keep pace with the times.For the relevant market definition method,the user demand substitution standard is used as the benchmark for the relevant market definition and the benchmark for the evaluation of market power,and it is clear that the substitution of product functions is not equivalent to the substitution of the product itself.Regarding the reporting standard,on the basis of the turnover standard,the transaction volume standard is added as the reporting threshold for mergers and acquisitions.Regarding privacy protection,including privacy protection as an independent consumer welfare content into the anti-monopoly law analysis framework,an item should be added to my countrys “Anti-Monopoly Law Revised Draft(Draft for Public Comment)” Consideration factors,namely“the impact of the concentration of business operators on the level of personal information protection”.For remedies,anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies should give priority to behavioral remedies,supplemented by structural remedies.