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Robin Vandendriessche, PhD researcher at ¹û¶³´«Ã½ Law School and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, contributed to a stakeholder event organised by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Commission on 15 October 2026, discussing upcoming on the interplay between data protection and competition law.

Drawing on his PhD research, he highlighted two key takeaways for the policy discussion:

• Data protection as a competitive parameter: The absence of observable competition before a merger should not automatically rule out competitive harm, as market failures and dominance may undermine user control over personal data and thereby weaken constraints on data-driven market power.
• Need for more integrated enforcement: In large data-driven cases, data protection expertise should inform competition investigations from the outset, including market definition, theories of harm and remedy design, supported by joint case teams involving both competition and data protection authorities.