Pouvoir de marché dans le secteur numérique: l’accès à de larges quantités de données est-il suffisant?

In the digital sector, access to large sets of data may provide strategic advantages and thus raises the question as to whether it may be the source of market power within the meaning of competition law. In light of recent case law, we argue that access to big data may confer such power only when particular conditions are met. The data at stake should notably be correlated to specific users. In addition, and more importantly, the market structure should be characterized by first entrant advantages or network effects (from that latter perspective, it should be noted that the analysis should in reality not differ from well-established principles under competition law). Put otherwise, and future cases seem likely to lead to that conclusion, market power based on large datasets may be admitted only, so to say, in extreme cases such as Google collecting data in relation to its search engine. A different conclusion might however be reached in the event competition ­authorities start…