Targeted Advertising and the (Children's) Right to Privacy - Remedies of Ex-ante and Ex-post Regulation

This paper analyses how instruments of economic regulation can be used to protect the right to the protection of personal data, especially in relation to vulnerable societal groups, such as children. In this regard, it analyses the Bundeskartellamt’s Facebook decision that established an unprecedented connection between competition law and data protection law, as well as the Digital Markets Act, which imposes several positive and negative obligations on companies branded as “gatekeepers,” which could also increase the level of personal data protection. It is concluded that instruments of economic regulation can have a profound impact on data protection issues, although addressing them is not their primary goal.