In the workshop, Inge drew conclusions from her article “Collective Data Harm at the Crossroads of Data Protection and Competition Law”,  that responsibility needs to be shifted away from individuals towards legislators and marketplayers. Alexandre presented key insights of his work “Data and Competition: A Simple Framework with Applications to Mergers and Market Structure”; and challenged our assumption that data is always a revenue shifter for companies and therefore pro-competitive. What are the implications of this for both theory-building and the practice of data-driven mergers?

The panel was opened by Viktoria commenting on the relationship between competition law and privacy in digital markets. The subsequent panel discussion sought to address several questions: What are the most pressing policy issues around privacy in digital markets? Where can academic economists and lawyers help in addressing these issues? Is there a need for interdisciplinary research? In particular, where do economists need lawyers and where do lawyers need economists on this topic? Who else should be engaged?