"German Competition Watchdog Wants 'Big Data' Hoards Considered in Merger Probes: Paper

A German competition watchdog wants the government to consider hoards of big data that companies have when making merger agreements. They say that things like, "How many users are there and which data is concerned? ... are better measurement categories when it comes to defining competition in the Internet" (Reuters). They also say that, "if just a few companies control the data you need to satisfy customers and cut costs, then you can give them the power to just drive rivals out of the market" (Reuters).

The watchdog says that just measuring the revenue and financial success of the company is not enough. They say that big data must also be measured in determining the value of a company. However, isn't the revenue of a company relevant to the amount of data they have. For example, let's say an app has 50,000 users. The users and all of their information is the data. However, the company has to report all of the revenue they make off of all of this data so wouldn't this in essence just be the same and valuating the company based on it's financials is just as accurate? 

The watchdog group has also said that not regulating this also gives rivals the ability to use the big data that they control to drive down prices and cut rivals out of the competition, leaving them in the dust. However, this does not seem like an accurate statement at all. More and more data is being generated everyday. The way a company can "control" that data is by providing a better service and/or product to consumers. For example, the social networking site Friendster was dominated and taken out by MySpace. After that MySpace was dominated and taken out Facebook. Therefore, the websites took users, and with it their data to their website instead.

The article also says that, "the European Commission accused Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google of favoring its own shopping services in search results at the expense of rivals, and is weighing possible sanctions against the world's most popular search engine" (Reuters). I do not believe Google to be intentionally violating any laws of the EU or in the world. However, advertising your OWN shopping services on YOUR OWN website should not be and is not a crime. It is YOUR website, it is your "property" on the Internet, so to speak. Google should be able to do whatever they want with their property because they own it.

I believe this article has overlooked the fact that the job of a company is to always be innovating and be ahead of their rivals so that they keep their customers. This is the basis of competition. I also believe this article has overlooked the fact that you can use your website however you want and display whatever you want on it. The final thing is that the article has overlooked the fact that having data translates to profits and that this is reflected in financial statements.

Article: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-data-competition-idUSKCN0VF0KV