In the world of an increasingly digitalized society, growing technological advances, and the desire to gain a competitive edge, appetites for a better position on the market are sometimes so strong that corporations would even cross the lines of legality and resort to decisions that violate competition law. Recently, the awareness of the revealing nature of consumers' personal data has given rise to a pattern of data misuse by the companies for profiteering and causing damage to their closest competitors.
This masters' thesis reviews Slovene personal data protection legislation and unfair competition, and compares it with foreign legislation in the field, in particular with the German one. This knowledge was then translated into practice, revealing attempts of a company to manipulate trade secrets and misuse personal data to unfairly compete in the market. In its first part, this thesis outlines a theoretical background of the matter, which is then, because of the lack of literature, defined and supported by case law and practical examples.
The above-mentioned practical example, which also inspired this master's thesis, describes a planned business transaction between company X and company Y, which involves introducing loyalty cards to create a database of consumers' interests, key personal information, market preferences, elasticity of demand, and other information that the company can use to adapt its marketing strategy and thus improve its position on the market. A comprehensive examination of the case shows that the two companies in question caused unfair competition by misusing consumers' personal data. For this phenomenon is new to the market, the case was also examined for a potential infringement of German competition law.
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