“Big Data”, one of the hot topics in recent years, has been widely discussed. The impact of “Big Data” on competition interests both practitioners and scholars. The major concern from antitrust perspective is whether “Big Data” could facilitate monopoly, especially in the platform economy where data could be easily accessed or collected by platforms from multiple sides of the market. The purpose of this article is to review the role of data in different stages of platform development and analyze the possibility of monopoly based on the interplay between data and platforms. We will also discuss when and how authorities should intervene with the anti-competitive behaviors in the platform economy driven by “Big Data” in different scenarios. 
Continue Reading Could“Big Data”Facilitate Monopoly and How Shall We Step In?