The Complementarity of Competition Policy and Law in the EU Data Governance

The concept of competition is not defined in EU primary law. The lack of a definition stems from a historical legacy that has led to the assumption that competition is a self-evident, natural state of the market, capable of taking various forms over time depending on the context. This thesis explores the evolution of competition policy and law within the broader context of the EU's Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030, which highlights the complementarity of competition policy and law with the EU’s Data Strategy and EU data legislation. The primary aim of this research is to examine this complementarity, from its conceptual vision to its practical implementation, including enforcement through specific case studies. The research analyses the evolution of competition policy and law, both in terms of legal rules and their application. The Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 calls for experimentation, iteration, and differentiation, requiring an investigation into how competition law operates in practice. Traditionally, competition law has reacted to anti-competitive practices; however, within the Programme, it is interrelated with proactive EU data legislation. The research focuses on this evolving interrelation, exploring how it shapes competition policy and law while constructing European data law. The research is structured around a series of key questions, which are addressed across three chapters. The first chapter explores the relationship between the EU’s Data Strategy and the new competition policy, investigating whether the boundaries between EU data legislation and competition law are becoming increasingly blurred, and whether competition law can function as a regulatory toolkit for data-related practices. The second chapter examines the substantive, procedural, and institutional dimensions of complementarity, focusing on the practical challenges and implications for businesses and administrative bodies, and considering whether competition law can reinforce the framework of EU data legislation. The third chapter presents specific case studies, analysing how the complementarity of competition law and data legislation is applied in practice, and exploring whether an experimentalist approach is being adopted by administrative bodies to address real-world challenges. The methodology of the research is doctrinal and descriptive, primarily analysing policy documents, legal texts, and EU legislative acts such as the Data Governance Act, the Data Act, and the Digital Markets Act. A comparative approach is employed in the case studies, examining the enforcement of complementarity across different jurisdictions. The research adopts an experimentalist governance perspective to explore the dynamic interrelation of competition policy and law with the EU's Data Strategy and EU data legislation, contributing to a broader understanding of their complementarity.