How was the European Union's privacy regime built? Drawing on regime theory and carrying out qualitative document analysis, we present the evolution of the privacy regime across the three decades from the 1995 European Data Protection Directive to the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation, the 2022 Data Governance Act and finally the 2022 Digital Markets package. Our analysis focuses on the European Commission and suggests that the privacy regime emerged out of the seemingly conflicting interplay between the (digital) single market whose power draws on the network effects of expanding data resources and concerns for personal privacy that seek limiting data gathering itself. Contrary to expectations, potential tensions between competition law and consumer protection have not hindered or decelerated the formation of the regulatory regime. In fact, these tensions have proven to be surprisingly productive.

中文翻译：

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奇怪的同床异梦：欧盟隐私制度制定过程中的消费者保护和竞争政策

欧盟的隐私制度是如何建立的？借鉴制度理论并进行定性文件分析，我们展示了从 1995 年欧洲数据保护指令到 2016 年通用数据保护条例、2022 年数据治理法案以及最后的 2022 年数字市场一揽子计划的三十年来隐私制度的演变。我们的分析重点关注欧盟委员会，并表明隐私制度是在（数字）单一市场之间看似相互冲突的相互作用中产生的，（数字）单一市场的力量利用了不断扩大的数据资源的网络效应，而对个人隐私的担忧则寻求限制数据收集本身。与预期相反，竞争法与消费者保护之间潜在的紧张关系并没有阻碍或减缓监管制度的形成。事实上，这些紧张局势已被证明具有惊人的成效。