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EU: Antitrust Chief suggests big data could be next target

By  |  January 17, 2016

The European Union competition watchdog is exploring whether the way tech firms collect and control massive sums of personal information — or “big data” — may violate antitrust rules, the agency’s commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on Sunday at the DLD Conference in Munich.

Any move to scrutinize data collection could have a big impact on digital ads, most of which hinge on user data.

While the agency has not opened an investigation, Vestager did clearly stress that the issue is on her radar. And her address highlighted the potent weight European regulators give to privacy concerns when it comes to tech.

“If just a few companies control the data you need to satisfy customers and cut costs, that could give them the power to drive their rivals out of the market,” she said at the onset of the conference. “Then we may have to step in in order to restore the level playing field.”

Full content: The New York Times

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