Sword of damocles? Assessing the compulsory sharing of essential data under the Chinese competition law

ABSTRACT As data have become an increasingly important asset of modern companies in the digital era, certain types of data, known as ‘essential data’, have become particularly crucial in market competition. The refusal to share ‘essential data’ may raise competition-relevant concerns, and the intervention by competition law to ensure its sharing is thus in demand. Yet, three dimensions should be carefully assessed before the legal interventions are deployed and applied. First, clear criteria should be crafted for identifying ‘essential data’. Second, it is vital to assess the role of ‘essential data’ concerning potential abuses of market dominance and merger control by corporations. Finally, the reasonable conditions under which the sharing of ‘essential data’ is compelled should be specified.