NEWSLETTER-2017

123 COMPETITION LAW Moreover, since the Commission regarded Microsoft as a rela- tively small player in the customer relationship management market, which is competitive and characterized by the presence of strong com- petitors, such as Salesforce, Oracle and SAP, the Commission found it to be unlikely that the Transaction would enable Microsoft to foreclose these players and eliminate competition in this market 11 . Online Advertising Services The Commission found that, Microsoft and LinkedIn are both ac- tive in the provision of online advertising services. While Microsoft provides both non-search and search advertising services, LinkedIn is active only in non-search advertising services. Therefore, the parties’ activities overlap only with respect to non-search advertising services. However, the parties are small players in this market, which is frag- mented, and led by Facebook and Google 12 . In addition to the low market shares, the Commission confirmed that the Transaction did not raise concerns with respect to online advertising 13 . Furthermore, the Commission analyzed whether the Transaction raises competition concerns resulting from the possible post-merger combination of the ‘data’ (essentially consisting of personal informa- tion, such as information on an individual’s job, career history and professional connections, and/or her or his email or other contacts, search behavior, etc. with respect to the users of their services) held by each of the parties in relation to online advertising 14 . Since the scope of collection, storage, process and use of data has changed dramatically in recent years, ‘big data’ concerns of the Commission in terms of competition assessments are increasingly growing and, thus, the Commission’s approaches to acquisition of big data is cautious in merger transactions. Additionally, through the newly adopted General Data Protection Regulation 15 , which provides 11 Case M.8124- Microsoft / LinkedIn, p. 33. 12 Case M.8124- Microsoft / LinkedIn, p. 33. 13 Case M.8124- Microsoft / LinkedIn, p. 34. 14 Case M.8124- Microsoft / LinkedIn, p. 34. 15 GeneralDataProtectionRegulation,availableat :http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.119.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2016:119:TOC