Gatekeeping With Privacy: The Facebook Case, Apple’s ATT Framework and Google’s Privacy Sandbox

Digital ecosystem operators can obtain an unmatchable information advantage with respect to the preferences of platform users by implementing privacy-related regulation and relying on the attractiveness of their core platform services. Implementing privacy-related regulation may violate competition law if it is done in an exclusionary or exploitative manner, but not simply because following the rules increases entry barriers and the dependency of other online service providers. Where dominant digital ecosystem operators reap advantages in competition from simply following privacy-related rules in line with the prevailing market standards (in contrast to either deviating from market standards or transgressing privacy rules), the competition issue is one of market structure, not one of anticompetitive behaviour.