Competition Rules for the Digital Age: The Economics of Personalized Data, Consumer Protection and the 9th Amendment of German Competition Law

The digitization of economic relations creates considerable challenges for competition policy. Against this background, the recent 9 th amendment of the German Law against Restrictions of Competition explicitly targets to make competition rules fit for the digital age. This article provides an overview on the relevant changes in German competition law. It discusses the changes that relate to the digitization of the economy against the background of the state-of-the-art of economic theory. According to the analysis, the 9 th amendment improves German competition policy in a couple of areas, in particular in relation to data-based online markets and to powerful digital platforms. However, in other areas, the changes are unlikely to meet the target, for instance with respect to data-based price discrimination, other types of behavioral discrimination, or regarding enhanced protection of anticompetitive publisher cooperation from competition law. Eventually, the article sketches three areas where expectably the next challenges from digitization to competition policy will surface. © 2017, List-Gesellschaft e.V.