The Relevance of Supply-Side Substitutability for ‘Big Data’

This paper emphasizes the importance of including supply-side substitution when assessing mergers in data-driven markets. A review of three merger decisions involving big data giants such as Facebook and Google reveals that competition authorities have so far neglected important aspects of data-driven markets such as a simplified supply-side substitutability. Consequently the ability to contest markets which are subject to digitalization has not been evaluated properly. We argue that competition authorities not only need to consider the possibility of supply-side substitution but should also consider the peculiarities of big data if they are to correctly assess competition in data-driven markets