How Competition Law Should React in the Age of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) is evolving at an accelerating pace. Competition law and policy aim to secure an active competition process in the market in order to protect customers in their own countries, regardless of the nationality of the actors, including the ICT industry. As the platforms become more oligopolistic, the Japanese government has established a data portability that enables users to transfer from any specific platform, at any time, to open up an environment where new platform-type businesses are created one after another and where active competition is carried out. In this policy discussion, it is necessary to seek methods that include realistic international cooperation that is not subject to regulation or intervention-oriented measures. In addition, discussion based on economic empirical analysis is particularly needed. From the viewpoints of ensuring innovative research and development (R&D) concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and fair competition generally, the way of the Governance of AI Networking should be a nonregulatory and a nonbinding way, taking technical features and responsibility distribution among stakeholders (developers, providers, end users, and third parties) into account.