Digital Platforms and Markets

Digital Merger Watch

Objective: Monitoring mergers and acquisitions in digital markets and proposing regulatory alternatives for economic deconcentration and guaranteeing fundamental rights.

Duration: July 2023 - July 2026

Status: Em Andamento

Supporter(s): SOMO

Description

The project, which brings together 16 national and international organisations, aims to monitor mergers and acquisitions in digital markets in different parts of the world, whether they are notifiable or not.

It is important to acknowledge that not all mergers and acquisitions are notified to the antitrust authority in their country. After all, for a notification to be mandatory, the transaction must meet a number of requirements, mostly quantitative. However, the Observatory recognises that digital markets may present unique complexities that do not always align with traditional antitrust analysis standards. It is therefore vital to carefully consider any transactions that have not been notified but may potentially impact fair competition, fundamental rights, open markets and democratic freedoms.

The Observatory will carry out studies that will serve as input for the social actors involved in the fight against the economic concentration of the large platforms. It is also hoped that the voices of civil society, which are often marginalized in political debates, will be able to influence more spaces for debate on the issue.

The Observatory will be based on three main pillars: coordination, monitoring and rapid response. The network will seek to provide a platform for members to meet, share information and coordinate responses to problematic M&A activity in digital markets.

The initiatives participating in the group are: Data Privacy Brasil; Article 19 Brazil, Article 19 Europe, Article 19 Mexico and Centroamérica; Balanced Economy Project; Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project; Center for Internet and Society; European Digital Rights; Foxglove; FGV Direito Rio; Gentium; Idec – Instituto de Defesa de Consumidores; IT for Change; Open Markets Institute; Privacy International; Rebalance Now; and SOMO.

Team

Rafael Zanatta Director

Bruno Bioni Director

Rafael Zanatta | Executive Director

Executive Director of Data Privacy Brasil. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo (USP) School of Law. He holds a Ph.D. from USP’s Institute of Energy and Environment, with further training at the Institute for Information Law at the University of Amsterdam. He also holds a Master’s degree in Law and Political Economy from the University of Turin and a Master’s degree in Philosophy and General Theory of Law from the USP School of Law. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Law from the State University of Maringá.

He was a visiting researcher focusing on platforms and the digital economy at The New School. He has served as coordinator of the Digital Rights Program at Idec, as a project lead at InternetLab, and as a researcher at the Fundação Getulio Vargas School of Law.

He edited The Sharing Economies and the Law (Juruá, 2017) and Data, Digital Markets and Competition (Casa do Direito, 2022). He is the author of Collective Protection of Personal Data in Brazil: Interpretive Frameworks (Letramento, 2023).

He is a member of the Digital Technologies Working Group of the OAB/SP Commission on the Rights of Children and Adolescents.

Bruno Bioni | Chair of the Members’ Council

Ph.D. in Commercial Law and Master’s degree in Civil Law from the University of São Paulo (USP) School of Law. In academia, he was a study visitor at the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Data Protection Unit, as well as a visiting researcher at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society.

He is the author of Personal Data Protection: The Function and Limits of Consent and Regulation and Data Protection: The Principle of Accountability, and has edited several books, including Data Protection: Context, Narratives, and Foundational Elements.

He served on the Brazilian Federal Senate’s panel of legal experts on Artificial Intelligence, on the Superior Electoral Court’s (TSE) Committee on Digital Integrity and Transparency on Internet Platforms, and as co-chair of the T20 Task Force on Inclusive Digital Transformation.

He currently serves as a member of the National Data Protection Council (CNPD), appointed as a representative of civil society organizations, and is a professor at ESPM and IDP-SP. He is a Co-founder and Chair of the Members’ Council of Data Privacy Brasil, an organization at the intersection of education and research in privacy and data protection.

Mariana Rielli Director

Carla Rodrigues Coordinator

Mariana Rielli | Member of the Members’ Council

Member of the Members’ Council of Data Privacy Brasil. She holds a law degree from the University of São Paulo (USP), with training in social project management and public policy from SENAC-SP. Since 2014, she has worked in the nonprofit sector on human rights, digital justice, data protection, and data governance.

She previously worked as a Research and Advocacy Advisor at ARTIGO 19 Brasil’s Legal Reference Center and as a research consultant for Alianza por la Libre Expresión e Información. She has been part of Data Privacy Brasil since March 2019, where she led the Privacy and Data Protection Observatory project and served as Project Coordinator and Institutional Development Coordinator.

In July 2023, she became Co-Executive Director of the organization, a position she held until July 2026. She holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, with a focus on data and digital societies.

Carla Rodrigues | Digital Platforms and Markets Coordinator

Ph.D. and Master’s degree in Contemporary Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), with Bachelor’s degrees in Social Communication, specializing in Public Relations, from Universidade Salvador (Unifacs), and in Social Work from UFBA.

She is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Digital Democracy (INCT.DD) and a member of the Study, Research, and Extension Group on Public Communication, Social Assistance, and Social Work at the University of Brasília (Compass/UnB).

Her experience lies at the intersection of Communication, Politics, and Digital Technologies, with a focus on research, strategic analysis, project development, data strategy, and planning. At Data Privacy Brasil, she serves as Digital Platforms and Markets Coordinator.

Eduardo Mendonça Researcher

Natasha Nóvoa Researcher

Eduardo Mendonça | Researcher of Digital Platforms and Markets

Graduated in Law from the State University of Rio Grande do Norte (UERN). Participated in the Youth (CGI.br), Leaders 2.0 (LACNIC) and IDP Privacy Lab (CEDIS-IDP) programs. Research in the areas of Law and the Internet, with a focus on public policies, favelas and urban communities, Internet governance and artificial intelligence. Researcher of Digital Platforms and Markets.

Natasha Nóvoa | Researcher

Specialist in Digital Security, Data Management, and Governance from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). Graduated in law from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA). Member of the Research Group linked to CNPq "Consumption and Citizenship/Economic Globalization" (UFPA/CESUPA). She was part of the Youth Brazil (NIC.br) delegation at the World Internet Governance Forum (UN - IGF) in Saudi Arabia in 2024. She has a career developed in the area of digital law and competition law, having served at the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) for one year. During her undergraduate studies, she was a CNPq scholarship holder for three consecutive years in the area of digital law, as well as participated in academic exchanges at the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic and at CADE. At Data is a researcher in the area of digital platforms and markets.