The Data Sharing Economy: On the Emergence of New Intermediaries

Data-driven markets depend on access to data as a resource for products and services. Since the quality of information that can be drawn from data increases with the available amount and quality of the data, businesses involved in the data economy have a great interest in accessing data from other market players. However, companies still appear to be reluctant to share their data. Therefore, the key question is how data sharing can be incentivized. This article focuses on data sharing platforms, which are emerging as new intermediaries and can play a vital role in the data economy, as they may increase willingness to share data. By comparing data sharing to the exchange of patents based on the FRAND principles, this article suggests a possible way for self-regulation to provide more transparency and fairness in the growing markets for data sharing.