Overcoming Trade-Offs in Tech Regulation

This report summarizes the recent key regulatory changes in the US, Europe, and China. It shows these jurisdictions have different regulatory approaches while being confronted with similar challenges. They all seek the right regulatory balance between: • promoting market efficiency while minimizing antitrust issues, • strengthening financial inclusion while ensuring financial stability, and • improving consumers’ welfare while limiting data usage misconduct. But can these approaches be reconciled under the umbrella of an inclusive and flexible global framework? While global coordination seems unlikely on many policy issues such as antitrust or government access to data, it works for technical standards. The coherence they bring to the regulatory landscape will benefit all countries, consumers, and firms. We identify data sharing as a necessary technical standard to restore consumer choice and strengthen competition in tech companies’ different economic sectors. We define data sharing as the combination of (i) data portability, (ii) platforms’ interoperability, and (iii) data reciprocity. In highly innovative markets such as those in the digital space, these requirements ensure low entry barriers. They also provide convenient and cost-effective alternatives to customers, allowing them to sanction firms’ poor behavior or quality of services by switching to another. Ultimately these requirements will favor competition, innovation, and consumers’ privacy.