PL 3: Competition in a data-driven world: How to ensure sustainable growth?

Ana Maria Corrêa

• Data is giving rise to a new economy. The impact of international data flows on economic growth has been larger than that of traditionally traded goods. Favourable policy and regulation can enable the data economy to increase even more, both in Europe and elsewhere. Competition in the data driven world is global. Currently, there are 2.5 billion digital customers around the world. Almost 2 billion customers transact through mobile devices.

• The free flow of data is essential to the value of data. Europe has to secure a degree of transparency, openness and fairness. In order to do that, it has created an observatory. There are competition rules that can come into force in extreme cases. Business needs to co-operate and help institutions to tackle abuses. The European Union has been accused of protectionism, but there are rules in place, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which aim to protect the citizens, even if they have some barriers.

• Developing and developed countries have been restricting the flow of data and imposing increasing restrictions to the movement of data in four different ways: 1. Bans to transfer data across borders; 2. Local processing requirements; 3. Local storage; 4. Conditional flows.

• Digitalisation is threatening and transforming jobs. Extensive investments should be made in education so that everyone can benefit from the digital economy. Redistribution is also an essential aspect in the transition to the digital economy, ensuring that people who are going to be left behind are supported. Sustainable growth depends on a level playing field in terms of data usage. The understanding of the data value chain, the way that data is collected, stored and analysed by lawmakers, is necessary to achieve sustainable economic goals.