Zero-priced markets have become important in the present digital society. The revenue models of Facebook and Google use targeted advertising for revenues. Based on this, it can be argued that zero-priced products are not free as consumers “pay” in form of attention to these advertisements. Zero-priced markets have the potential to be harmful for the consumers in form of less privacy. While the data protection law deals with the protection of personal data, however, this data is acquired by the companies on the basis of consent, performance of a contract or legitimate interests.

Most consumers are either not aware about how their data is being used or do not value their data enough to give up the zero-priced services. In light of this changing technological environment, the article suggests whether this choice should be made on behalf of the consumers through regulation under the consumer welfare standard whereby companies are either required to change their current business model or provide for better provisions for privacy. The article aims to provide an improved legal framework of competition law, consumer protection law and data protection law to provide a balance in regulating digital markets.