Laurent Vallée, Introduction to Panel 3: Competition and Regulation in the Data Economy

Presented at the Legal Challenges of the Data Economy conference, March 22, 2019.

Transcript

LAURENT VALEE: We're going to talk about competition and regulation in the data economy this afternoon. And before doing a round of introduction, I'll say a few remarks to try to modestly to frame the panel. And after all, I thought last evening that the retail sector is maybe not a bad starting point to reflect on the impact of data today.

As you know, a whole lot of literature about disruption of retail, about Amazon, about Amazon as Whole Foods, has been made. And obviously, many factors are at stake when you think about the evolution of retail. But to oversimplify, you must have in mind that the retail business was based on two main things, real estate and shelf space.

And the battle for shelf space was the battle to reach the consumer. Suppliers were fighting for shelf space in all supermarkets and we hope that they will still do for some time. But that was the old battle for discovery. And today we have a few big players of the digital economy that control discovery in a way.

And if you're looking for something, if you are searching something, the first thing you do is go on your device. You go on an e-commerce site or digital platform. And you don't go someplace else. Why? For many reasons.

Because you can find everything. Because today a typical millennial looks at his phone more than 150 times a day. And unfortunately, doesn't go to a car or store 150 times a day. Because you have a superior user experience, and because everybody's getting used to a seamless shopping experience.

And why do you get a better experience as a consumer? It's because these companies are getting bigger and bigger and because they're having more and more data and they know how to use it. So in the data economy, it seems that the bigger you are, the better you are, at least from a consumer perspective, and at least in the short term.

So today, thanks to data, a few companies seem to dominate the stock market, to dominate the way we spend our money, and the way we spend our time. And finally they seem to have also sometimes a powerful role in the political process in the US and in the EU as well. For all these reasons, and again sorry for oversimplifying it, in a few years data became the number one problem. So it seems in competition policy.

Everybody's talking about network effects, free services, how to deal with the size of digital platforms. But when you think about it, are all these questions really new? Think about network effects. In fact, the issue has been there for a long time.

Just think about the telecom industry. Is there really something new? The use of data related to consumers, it's also something that has been there for a long time. And the size issue as well, it has been there for a long time.

But at the same time, the means by which the big platforms win seemed to be very different than the means by which companies sort of won in the past. So in that context, do we need a new framework when it comes to merger control or to antitrust? Is regulation a problem today? Or merger control is the merger procedure still relevant when huge data driven mergers have been unconditionally cleared in the last few years?

And what about public policies concern, so privacy, data analytics, data sharing with third parties, et cetera? About antitrust another question is how to improve enforcement when in that economy, timing is everything. Another issue, especially in Europe, is GDPR, will it bleed one way or the other in the way anti-trust is done in Europe? And what can we say about the currently debated relationship between competition and data protection law?

To discuss these issues, we have a very distinguished panel today that covers I think, the entire spectrum of all the questions raised by this general subject, even if, forgive us about that, there is no woman on this panel, which of course, I think is not at all representative of the field.

So I'm going to introduce everyone if that's OK with you. And so it's a pleasure to introduce Randall C. Picker, James Parker Hall, distinguished Professor of Law at University of Chicago, H.M Pfister on my left side, economics professor and chief economist of the French Competition Authority. Antoine Chapsal, Affiliated Professor at the Science Po Department of Economics, and a consultant at Analysis Group and founder of Analysis Group, where you assist firms by providing economic expertise.

And Alexandre Menais, a general secretary of Atos Group, which as you know is the European leader in cloud, cybersecurity, et cetera. And we have to congratulate you Ales, because you have been very recently appointed member of the French Competition Authority.

And so now we have the lead to less than two hours if I'm correct and to leave some time for discussion and questions of the urgence, I will ask every one of you to speak roughly 20 to 25 minutes. I'm sorry about that. I would have to be a timekeeper.