Commentators in the U.S. and Europe have been agitating for regulators to consider companies’ data holdings when they conduct antitrust analyses of proposed mergers or investigate possible anticompetitive conduct. But merely having data does not raise anticompetitive concerns, writes Joe Kennedy in Harvard Business Review. If data-rich companies thwart competition, regulators already have tools to address harms. Unduly curbing data collection and use would depress innovation when policymakers should be encouraging it.
