Adrian Kuenzler on Meta’s peculiar acumen—moving privacy ahead in social media markets (Yearbook of European Law)

"Meta’s peculiar acumen—moving privacy ahead in social media markets"
Adrian Kuenzler
Yearbook of European Law
Published online: December 2025

Abstract: This article puts forward a new perspective on Meta Platforms Inc., a recent breakthrough decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), reconfiguring key debates around the use of personal data by social media companies and how that use affects the manner in which individuals and social relations are represented, realized, and governed through digital markets. The decision enables dominant social media companies to offer, for an appropriate fee, a paid version of their products if users reject personal data processing by the platform. While Meta defies conventional viewpoints as to how consumers can give valid consent to the processing of their personal data, this article submits that the decision to enable them to do so in this fashion is expedient. The CJEU uncovers a rift between different avenues of consumer influence and recognizes that these avenues are interlinking means of moving privacy ahead in concentrated markets. Though existing legal doctrine does not fully accept that vital reality, Meta in fact clears the way for privacy to be realized in digital markets.

Adrian Kuenzler on Attuning Big Tech Regulation in Light of Data-Driven Markets (EJPLT)

"Attuning Big Tech Regulation in Light of Data-Driven Markets"
Adrian Kuenzler
European Journal of Privacy Law & Technologies, Special Issue 2025
Published online: October 2025

Abstract: Empirical studies have observed rising concentrations of corporate power. Policymakers, in turn, have envisaged the restructuring of markets by breaking big technology companies up. The Privacy Fallacy persuasively argues that accountability for the consequences of corporate data practices entails creating a new type of tort liability that recognizes the value of privacy. But addressing the effects of digital technologies must also involve competition law, to enable consumers to challenge, contest, or modify their favoured product segments. This involves a sort of influence that enables consumers to meaningfully address the predicaments of digital technologies and making their use more profound.

Adrian Kuenzler on Regulatory Diffusion Beyond Digital Empires – Searching for a Resilient Competition Law Framework (GRUR International)

"Regulatory Diffusion Beyond Digital Empires – Searching for a Resilient Competition Law Framework"
Adrian Kuenzler
GRUR International
Published online: December 2024

Extract: Regulation has had a resurgence across many jurisdictions of late, with digital platforms being distinct new objects that need to be addressed. The emergence of this new regulatory object is part of a global – and vital – tendency toward reassessing tech power and state sovereignty. However, there are considerable differences in how digital platforms are dealt with across jurisdictions. The European Union, the United States, and China have each adopted their own regulatory approaches, ranging from rights-based to market- and state-driven models. While this has led to concerns about regulatory fragmentation and increased costs for consumers, considerable uncertainty also remains regarding how to regulate, identify, and adopt the most suitable regulatory approach.

A largely underappreciated aspect of this debate is the rapid process of regulatory diffusion – the adoption of substantially similar rules – in different jurisdictions beyond the major digital empires. Examples include the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its trading partners, where a shift from an ex post to an ex ante regulatory approach in competition law is underway, with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) emerging as a blueprint that different countries customize to fit their digital ecosystems and domestic policies.

HKU Law Welcomes Prof. Adrian Kuenzler

Welcome to Prof. Adrian Kuenzler, who joins the Faculty of Law as an Associate Professor.

Adrian Kuenzler is Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law and Affiliate Fellow at the Information Society Project, Yale Law School. His research focuses on technology, innovation policy and competition, and examines problems in antitrust, intellectual property and consumer law from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. Adrian graduated from the University of Zürich (M.A., Ph.D.) and from Yale Law School (LL.M., J.S.D.). He has served as a Professor in the Faculty of Law at Zürich University and has held visiting academic positions at New York University School of Law, the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Yale Law School, ETH Zürich, the European University Institute, the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society and Oxford University. Adrian has held visiting professorship positions at Universidad de San Andrés (Buenos Aires) and the University of Münster. He has also been a Robert S. Campbell Visiting Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Adrian’s research on technology and digital markets is regularly relied on by governments and international organizations in debates around the interplay of competition law and data privacy and his work on how the design of online platforms shapes users’ behavior has been drawn upon by policymakers, think tanks and news outlets in different jurisdictions.

Adrian has received a number of prizes for his teaching and research, including the Young Scholar Prize of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy and the University of Zürich Certificate of Distinction in Teaching. He has received major research grants and fellowships for his work from the Swiss National Science Foundation and Society in Science, among others. Adrian has also been invited to serve as an independent expert in international court proceedings.