Are competition regulators protecting us consumers?

Mergers and acquisitions are picking up the pace in the economy. 

It is obvious that the five US Internet giants, that are also active in the Philippines, are not always behaving having our protection in mind. Just read the latest income levels generated by Google, Apple and Microsoft!

Modern monopoly surpasses itself and constantly works to eliminate competition. This cause becomes a question of economic destiny - and should alarm the top antitrust authorities.

Antitrust authorities in various parts of the world are currently working on tightening the merger rules - and are asking for input from the public.

Why have so many industries so few competitors. It is necessary to make the competition policy fit for the modern economies.

The lack of competition has left sectors of the economy more fragile. The concentrated supply and reduced investments in capacity could endanger us in the event of possible disruptions. There are plenty examples already where shortages are being created to drive prices up. Three sectors come up immediately: energy, healthcare(manufacturing and distribution) and food products; they cover our daily needs. Villar’s Advanced Media getting the former ABS-CBN frequencies from NTC is another example. Or look at bank mergers and bank-business acquisitions by banks: all done in the interest of fair competition?

As explained in a previous column, metaverse is another good example how things are going the wrong way for competition protection and data privacy protection.

Apple Inc. hasn’t disclosed its plan for the virtual world, but many are betting the company will introduce extended-reality devices. Apple may not have triggered the current buzz about the metaverse, but the company is reaping the benefit.

Excitement about how the iPhone maker could gain from a broad embrace of digital alternate realities has been a central facet of the rise in its share price in recent months, according to investors and analysts.

Microsoft agreed to buy Activision Blizzard, the video game maker behind hits like Call of Duty and Candy Crush, for $68.7 billion in cash. The deal will position Microsoft for the next generation of the internet – Web3.

Metaverse, the name for the virtual worlds many companies are putting money into, is more of a buzzword than a big business for now. But the Activision deal could give Microsoft a significant boost against Facebook, which is considered the leader in the metaverse.

It is good to see that joint policy initiatives between competition and data protection regulators picked up speed in 2021, aiming to crack down on how large companies use personal data. Some regulators are calling for greater alignment between antitrust and privacy oversight bodies to control corporate data misuse and prevent companies from using consumer data to gain unfair competitive advantages.

European regulators for data protection, competition, media, and financial markets said that they will share expertise on data processing, artificial intelligence, and other digital business areas, drawing on experiences from their own cases. The regulators said they would explore possibilities to jointly work on enforcement investigations.

Regulators in Europe, the U.S. and other regions are realizing that large tech companies have become very powerful and collected huge amounts of data, while rules on their behavior lag.

Pending EU rules could add to the regulatory pressure on large data-centric companies. The draft digital markets act, which is currently in legislative negotiations, would introduce requirements on large digital companies, such as forcing them to offer data portability to end users.

The legislation could be quite a significant game-changer for the way digital platforms are regulated. European regulators’ growing interest in digital platforms is likely accelerated by regular reports of new high-profile data breach scandals.

It will be essential that the private sector in the Philippines works closely with the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to safeguard fair competition and with the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to safeguard privacy factors associated with data.

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