Antitrust regulators are being urged to look beyond Google and Facebook and review how streamers are leveraging consumer habits as a competitive weapon in the digital entertainment war
Movie box office. TV ratings. Say what you will about the reliability of entertainment consumption metrics, but for decades, what people watched was hardly hush-hush. Then subscription video streamers came along. Now, massive data is collected about viewing habits but is disclosed only at the discretion of the companies sucking it up. Netflix says it will become more transparent in 2020.
Only in the past few years have academics begun discussing whether Big Data presents antitrust issues, and if so, what to do about it. Spurred by frustration at the might of companies like Google and Facebook, lawmakers and regulators on both sides of the political aisle have in recent months openly endorsed the scrutinizing of companies that are leveraging their inside knowledge about consumer habits to the disadvantage of third parties.
It's happening slowly, but antitrust regulators like Delrahim are now being urged to look beyond Google and Facebook and review how data is being leveraged as a competitive weapon in the digital entertainment space. And the expressed openness by conservative legal thinkers to analyze the non-price effects of competition is a remarkable development that bears watching.
If regulators decide to crack down, a side squabble would erupt over how to remedy the competitive harms arising from data collection. Among the possibilities is that data aggregation could become a significant issue when companies seek approval for mergers. Reuters reported Dec. 10 that the DOJ is examining whether to block Google's proposed acquisition of Fitbit on the grounds that it would give Google too much data about American consumers.
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