온라인 플랫폼 기업결합의 경쟁제한성 판단 기준으로서 빅데이터에 대한 연구

Abstract

Recently, the regulations on online platform mergers have been tightened in the US, EU, and Korea. The U.S. Agencies have revised the merger guidelines and added a new structural presumption, which signals a change in enforcement from the past. The European Commission intends to regulate online platform mergers through Article 14 of the DMA and a new interpretation of Article 22 of the EUMR. Korea is also trying to provide various and specific screening standard for online platforms through a premerger notification program based on the transaction amount, the introduction of the concept of big data, and efforts to revise the merger guideline to reflect the characteristics of the digital economy. These regulations include the regulation of killer acquisitions, conglomerate merger, and big data-driven mergers, and big data is a core asset of online platforms and needs to be considered as a new standard to establish anticompetitive effects of merger. When reviewing big data as a standard to establish anticompetitive effects of merger, the following factors should be considered: (i) accumulation of data after the merger, (ii) data-misuse, (iii) lock-in effect by data and (iv) increasing barriers to entry by data. First, accumulation of data should consider (a) the merged firm’s ability to collect data; (b) the nature and type of data, such as the volume, value, variety, and velocity of the data; (c) competitors' access to similar data; and (d) competitors' strategies to respond to accumulation of data. Second, data-misuse should consider (a) the acquisition of the right to use data and (b) the possibility of combining data. Third, the lock-in effect by data should consider (a) two-sided market, (b) indirect network effect, (c) feedback loops, and (d) multi-homing. Fourth, the increasing barriers to entry by data should consider (a) the size of the ability to collect data after the merger, (b) the level of the merging firm’s own data before the merger, and (c) the change in the ability to collect data and data value before and after the merger. Despite the open debate on big data, big data itself has rarely been a decisive factor in the approval of mergers to date. Big data is an essential factor to be considered in but it is not yet a decisive factor in establishing anticompetitive effects of merger, However, as online platforms develop, the importance of big data will increase, and therefore, the significance of big data as a standard to establish anticompetitive effects of online platform merger will become even more important in the future.