On the occasion of the book’s publication, BI’s Department of Law and Governance is arranging a seminar on Friday 1 November 2024.

The monetization of personal data has become an increasingly common business practice, igniting global debate on the interface between data privacy law and competition law. Drawing insights from emergent properties and complexity science, Samson Esayas examines the interplay between data privacy law and competition law to address challenges resulting from the commercialization of data. The book begins by identifying key shifts in big data: the growing trend of processing personal data for diverse purposes, the aggregation of data across various operations, and the shift from offering stand-alone products and services to ecosystems of several, with personal data central in connecting the different markets. These shifts engender a complex economic landscape, marked by multiple actors, a web of interactions, and non-linear, emergent outcomes. Despite this complexity, the prevailing approach to data privacy law and competition law emphasises isolated units of analysis-whether a relevant market or a distinct processing operation. This approach overlooks system-wide (emergent) risks borne of cumulative processing operations and cross-market practices.

In light of these challenges, Esayas's volume calls for recalibrating data privacy law and competition law for a complex economy, emphasizing a holistic, systems-level perspective that addresses emergent harms and a polycentric strategy that leverages the strengths of each legal regime.

• More information about the book (pdf)