By Dr. Jörg Hladjk, Philipp Werner & Lucia Stoican –
The outcome of the German Facebook proceedings is of much interest for the development of both EU competition and data protection laws. It will most likely set a precedent, since it is the first time that an infringement of data protection rules will be examined by a competition enforcer under abuse of dominance rules. Could this case therefore pave the way to a convergence between competition and data protection rules? Could this convergence result in a ‘forced’ data sharing obligation imposed by competition enforcers on companies that are abusing their dominant position? Are we there yet? Or are we still at a stage where data protection is just a “dimension” of competition law in the tech sector?
