Fairness in market instrumental data law

Abstract The paper examines fairness as a core principle of market instrumental data law. First, by drawing a comparison with the legal conceptions of fairness in data protection law and platform law, the nature and functions of fairness as a principle of market instrumental data law are unveiled. At bottom, fairness embodies a principle of interpersonal justice, distributive justice, and procedural justice (to a much lesser degree). The paper then scrutinises the contending normative readings of fairness that variously emerge from market instrumental data law. Four perspectives arise: the welfarist approach, the liberal perfectionist one, the political liberal one, and fairness as ‘equality of means and outcomes’. It is concluded that the interpretive and adjudicative practices in market instrumental data law have the potential to reflect this wealth of understandings, paving the way towards diverse patterns of data access and use in data markets.