Separation of powers arguments may play a role in antitrust. The opposite is also true, as antitrust may influence the separation of powers envisaged in a broad – political and economic – perspective. Indeed, the concentration of power by a few companies of the digital economy reveals data, platform and politico-economic powers, which may lead to a rethinking of our understanding of separation of powers and let us question the role of antitrust de lege lata in this regard. One of the difficult tasks posed by antitrust typically consists of defining the relevant markets, often a key element of antitrust analysis and enforcement. Once the markets are defined, data access, portability, sharing, and interoperability, as well as the interdiction of abusive discrimination, raise fundamental issues from a politico-economic perspective of or on the separation of powers principles and antitrust. Discrimination by a dominant firm may trigger the application of antitrust or competition laws. Ultimately, antitrust may contribute to deconcentrate data or platform power and support some form of separation of powers from a politico-economic perspective.

Enabling researchers’ access to large volumes of health data collected in both research and healthcare settings can accelerate improvements in clinical practice and public health. Because the source and subject of those data are people, data access governance has been of concern to scientists, ethics and regulatory scholars, policy-makers and citizens worldwide. This chapter examines the topic of data access governance. We discuss the underlying values and goals of data access governance, focusing in particular on the scientific and social implications for open access and data sharing, on the rights and interests of data subjects as well as those of data producers, and on the ethical conduct of data sharing. We then present existing data access arrangements of organisations and repositories that exemplify varying modes of good practice. We argue these models exemplify the tension between promoting open access to databases on the one hand, and, on the other, protecting the rights and interests of the parties involved, including data subjects, researchers, funding organizations and commercial entities. We suggest that principles of transparency, fairness and proportionality in consideration of all stakeholders’ interests and values is key to achieving this balance.