Maria Wasastjerna Launches Book on Competition, Data and Privacy in the Digital Economy

Maria Wasastjerna, Hannes Snellman’s partner and co-head of the Competition & Procurement group, has published a book with Wolters Kluwer on the growing role of data and privacy in the competitive landscape of digital markets.

In her book, Maria discusses the importance of non-price dimensions in competition, such as data protection and consumer choice, and addresses challenges of measuring intangible welfare harms and the invisible cost of privacy that consumers pay for seemingly free online services. The book could not be more topical considering the current economic climate with growing concerns about digital platforms and concentration of market power by the world's leading technology companies, and policymakers debating breaking them up and imposing data sharing. These developments all relate to the broader question addressed in Maria’s book of whether antitrust is fit for purpose and how regulators are responding to the novel challenges of digital competition.

Maria’s book project builds on her doctorate from the University of Helsinki in 2019, which was passed with distinction, a degree only awarded for pioneering dissertations of exceptional quality.

Maria has extensive experience in competition law and regulatory matters. At Hannes Snellman, she advises Finnish and international companies on all aspects of competition law specialising in regulatory and compliance matters, competition litigation, and M&A transactions.

To celebrate the book launch, we arranged a book release webinar on Tuesday 15 September 2020. In the webinar Anu Bradford and Henry L. Moses, Professor of Law and International Organization at Columbia Law School, discussed with Maria the various contemporary themes raised in the book. Please see the webinar recording here.