Big Data and Competition in China: Antitrust Regulation and Beyond

Today, companies have had no doubt that they compete in terms of data. Data feeds companies to improve the quality of their products, to develop new products, to know their customers, and to personalize products. Big data is a novel source of market power, and has enabled companies to engage in monopoly behaviors through algorithms. China’s antitrust authority has begun to seriously consider this issue in recent antitrust legislation (particularly, the draft Antitrust Guidelines on the Field of Platform Economy). This article provides an overview of how big data-related competition issues are dealt with in China, as well as the complex triangular relationship between antitrust, unfair competition and personal data protection in certain scenarios.

By Jet Deng & Ken Dai¹

The digitization process in the last two decades has dramatically changed the way people live as well as the way companies compete. Today companies have had no doubt that they are in a digital era of competition of the big data, by the big data, and for the big data. Big data helps companies to improve the quality of their products, develop new products, know their customers, and personalize the products. Provided that a high volume and variety of data is essential for the operation of certain types of business, access to that big data may enable a company to foster a competitive advantage over its rivals and even result in a dominant market position. Also, the algorithms developed and train