February 28, 2022
The pandemic that hit the world in 2020 was a boon for Big Tech and the digital economy. Amazon, Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and Apple along with Asian tech giants Alibaba, Naver, and Rakuten to name a few, profited by keeping tabs on users, watching and capitalizing on their data. Today they have come under fire as antitrust authorities worldwide are watching. Competition watchdogs are homing in on killer acquisitions related to data and scrutinising agreements of platform operators for unfair trade practices. Antitrust authorities have turned the tables and are watching and questioning every move Big Tech makes. The story is no different in Asia, though some might say the magnitude may be less aggressive than the scene in the US or Europe. Asian authorities like their peers in Europe and the US have become skeptical of transactions involving data and digital markets. Many apply existing antitrust tools to preempt potential anti-competitive conduct while others contemplate new rules to rein in the digital market. Reducing merger thresholds is in vogue for deals involving the digital economy. Regulators are invoking novel theories of harm outside of the traditional antitrust analysis and considering broader topics such as data power, innovation, network effects, and sustainability in their review. “Themes across various jurisdictions are very similar and we are seeing convergence in enforcement in the digital economy,” said Natalie Yeung, Hong Kong-based partner at Slaughter & May. Effective Enforcement While the number of investigations in the digital sector may be relatively lower in Asia, they are not ineffective, lawyers at Baker McKenzie said. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) penalized Alibaba USD... 
