%S TSE Working Paper
%A Doh-Shin Jeon
%A Domenico Menicucci
%T Data Portability and Competition: Can Data Portability Increase both Consumer Surplus and Profits?
%X We study how data portability aspects consumer surplus and firms profits in a two-period model with a switching cost where two rms compete under a non-negative pricing constraint. The firms can circumvent the constraint by tying another complementary free service (called "freebies") with the original service. We consider a general framework of incomplete pass-through of freebies into consumer benet, which includes the two extreme cases of no pass through and full pass  through. Regarding the effect on consumer surplus, data portability involves a trade-off between intensifying competition after consumer lock-in and reducing rent dissipation before consumer lock-in. For an intermediate range of pass-through rates, data portability increases both consumer surplus and profits.
%K Data Portability, Switching Cost, Non-negative Pricing Constraint
%K Freebies, Pass-through
%B TSE Working Paper
%V 23-1450
%D 2023
%C Toulouse
%I TSE Working Paper
%L publications48043