Competition and mergers with strategic data intermediaries

David Bounie, Antoine Dubus, Patrick Waelbroeck

We analyze competition between data intermediaries collecting information on consumers, which they sell to firms for price discrimination purposes. We show that competition between data intermediaries benefits consumers by increasing competition between firms, and by reducing the amount of consumer data collected. We argue that merger policy guidelines should investigate the effect of the data strategies of large intermediaries on competition and consumer surplus in related markets.

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Year of publication:	October 2021
Authors:	Bounie, David ; Dubus, Antoine ; Waelbroeck, Patrick
Publisher:	Munich, Germany : CESifo, Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute
Subject:	data \| mergers \| competition \| consumer surplus \| Fusion \| Merger \| Wettbewerb \| Competition \| Konsumentenrente \| Consumer surplus \| Theorie \| Theory \| Übernahme \| Takeover \| Wettbewerbspolitik \| Competition policy