The Regulatory Path of Big-Data Price Discrimination-Based on Economic Characteristics and Legal Accountability

Big data has not been effectively governed after it has received social attention since 2018. This paper aims to explore a more appropriate and feasible regulatory path by exploring the reasons why big-data price discrimination has failed to obtain legal regulation, as well as the economic, technological, and market structure causes of big-data price discrimination. In the argument, it is found that there are legal problems such as doubtful illegality, regulatory gaps that belong to the intersection of multiple laws, and difficulty in obtaining evidence. And because of the profit-seeking nature of the platform economy, the unconsciousness of algorithms and the uniqueness of the platform market structure, the boundaries between big-data price discrimination and reasonable marketing strategies are difficult to decide. It is not possible to totally prohibit big-data price discrimination and hinder the development of the new business model of the platform economy. However, when the platform's profit-seeking behavior infringes on the market order and consumer rights, big-data price discrimination is legally accountable. On one side, big-data price discrimination may infringe consumers' fair trading rights, and the judgment criteria should be determined based on cost and profit rate. On the other side, in the anti-monopoly law, the boundary between reasonable transaction habits and legally accountable differential treatment should be distinguished for big-data price discrimination.