The Antitrust and Privacy Interface: Lessons for Regulators from the Data.

This Article will review empirical evidence on the effects of privacy laws--particularly those regulating personal data collection and use--on competition, aiming to inform regulators regarding potential antitrust impacts. Regulators often assume that competition laws cannot sufficiently address antitrust issues in digital services markets and may view privacy regulations as a means to bridge antitrust gaps to foster competition, viewing them as generally pro-competitive. However, empirical evidence reveals a more complex relationship between privacy regulations and competition, indicating that through their impacts on market concentration, firm entry and exit, advertising, contracting, and compliance costs, among others, privacy laws can potentially undermine competition and even erode consumer privacy. Informed by the empirical evidence, privacy and antitrust regulators should account for these effects in crafting and deploying regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]