Consumer Choice and Consent in Data Protection
Antitrust Chronicle https://www.competitionpolicyinternational.com/category/antitrust-chronicle/
8 Pages Posted: 1 Mar 2021
Date Written: January 19, 2021
Abstract
The mechanism of the GDPR limited legal grounds for the collection and processing of personal data, and the narrow and very restrictive interpretation of the same legal grounds runs the risk of limiting consumer choice, instead of reinforcing self-determination. This leads to removing the choice for consumers to pay with their data. The superimposition of competition law with the proposal to introduce dominance into the GDPR analysis is liable to exacerbate this effect by further limiting consumer choice. The GDPR example highlights the risk of introducing general and comprehensive privacy laws for consumer choice: while it reinforces consumer control on their data in general, it puts constraints on self-determination by reducing its choice in terms of features, products or ability to use its personal data to obtain more services.
Keywords: GDPR, CCPA, data protection, privacy, competition law, antitrust, consumer protection, consent
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