Exploring the Competition Challenges to SMEs within European Union Market after application of General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP)

Abstract

Within the European Union, the monetization of data has generated an economy of 300 billion in 2016 and has kept on increasing since then. In 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been enforced and is said to have drastically changed the European Union landscape of data protection. The impact of such a regulation on the competition within the European Union market can be analysed by tackling the subject from three different angles: the barrier to entry of SMEs into the market, the balance of interests between consumer welfare and data privacy and finally the GDPR as a controversial regulatory tool for the market. The whole topic was discussed by the researcher in her dissertation for postgraduate degree. This paper has been extracted from the thesis and is focussing on the first aspect of the research where the GDPR appears to be a challenge for the small and medium sized enterprises but not to the extent of being a barrier to entry the market thanks to the flexible and tolerant approach of the European Commission and National Data Authorities. Moreover, this approach allowed raising awareness regarding data privacy both on the companies’ side and consumers’ side. The transparency brought by the GDPR even generated a competitive asset for companies. As a result, both overlapping notions happen to complement each other. Finally, it is likely, considering the current use of the GDPR by the European Commission, that in the long run the GDPR could be used as one of the factors to analyse and control behaviours on a competitive perspective and therefore helping to regulate the market.