Shaping remedies at the interface of EU competition and data protection law: Synergies, tensions and gaps

To move forward our understanding of the interaction between competition and data protection law, this chapter focuses on how to shape remedies in situations where competition and data protection concerns coincide. Three types of interactions are distinguished from the perspective of how the remedy contributes to achieving the objective of the relevant regime. Remedies can create synergies when they reinforce the complementary objectives of the two regimes. Tensions occur when a remedy undermines the objective of the other regime. A 'gap' is considered present when a case raises both competition and data protection concerns, but the remedy adopted only addresses the concerns of one regime. Reference is made to concrete examples and cases to illustrate these three types of interaction and how competition and data protection authorities can address them. The chapter also points to the need for restorative remedies and discusses ‘machine unlearning’ as a relevant emerging technique.