Role of big data in assessing abuse of a dominant position by data-driven online platforms under EU competition law

The main research objective of the dissertation is to analyse whether and if so, how the EU legal framework for the assessment of abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU15 should be adjusted to address the competition online platforms and, if not, how it should be adjusted; (2) whether the EU framework currently used for defining a relevant market is suitable to deal with data-driven online platforms’ businesses and, if not, how it should be adjusted; (3) whether big data contributes to the emergence of a new type of abuse that is data-driven; (4) whether instruments currently used in the EU for the assessment of abuses of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU are sufficiently flexible to address potential data-driven abuses by online platforms. Following hypotheses are to be tested in the dissertation: (1) big data constitutes a competitive advantage for data-driven online platforms and is an important factor influencing their market power; (2) big data contributes to the emergence of a new type of abuse of a dominant position that is data-driven; (3) the current EU framework for the assessment of abuse of dominant position under Article 102 TFEU needs to be adjusted in order to capture specificity of data-driven online platforms, the role of big data in their businesses and their potentially abusive data-driven practices. concerns arising from the widespread use of big data by data-driven online platforms. In order to achieve the established objective, the following research questions are considered: (1) whether the EU framework currently used for the assessment of market power allows for taking due account of big data’s influence on the market power of data-driven