Comparative Law Study on Competition and Fairness of Transactions among IT Giants in a Data-driven Economy

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K01335
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 05040:Social law-related
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University
• Principal Investigator: Ibata Yohei 長崎大学, 経済学部, 教授 (80467406)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 独占禁止法 / 取引の公正 / データ駆動型経済 / 競争政策

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The question of this research project is what kind of legal and regulatory schemes should contribute to the creation of an ideal market order in a data-driven economy. In exploring this question, I collected and analyzed precedents of competition and data protection laws in the U.S. and the EU from a cross-sectoral perspective in order to find a legal and regulatory framework that ensures competition among giant IT companies such as GAFA while also paying attention to the appropriate use of personal data and the protection of privacy in Japan.
As a result of the research, it became clear that in the U.S.and the EU, especially under the Biden administration, the FTC Act, which combines competition law and consumer protection law, is used as a basis to ensure "fairness" in transactions that utilize data, while at the same time seeking a form of competition that can utilize a large amount of data and increase efficiency in resource allocation.

Free Research Field

独占禁止法、競争法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究成果の学術的・社会的意義は、第１に、消費者の利益を守る法的介入の正当化根拠としての「取引の公正」概念に依拠しつつ、GAFAら巨大デジタルプラットフォームに対して、競争の観点から規制を行う独禁法を用いて介入すべき競争上の弊害やその内容が、理論とともに行為類型を含めてある程度特定することができた点、第２に、「公正性」という柔軟な概念をベースとして個別的問題に対する具体的な施策の方向性を可能な限り示したことから、今後消費者が直面すると考えられる、別の文脈での新たな社会的課題の解決策を提示するにあたっても応用あるいは転用が可能な理論的バックボーンを形成するのに（いくらかでも）寄与しうる点である。