The European Commission has released draft Merger Guidelines that would replace its 2004 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and 2008 Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines and introduce new concepts such as resilience, sustainability, dynamic competition and innovation and investment competition into EU merger analysis. Greg Werden joins the podcast to discuss whether the draft reflects a meaningful change in the Commission’s analytical framework, a more interventionist enforcement posture, or both. We discuss the role of economics in the draft, the relationship between consumer welfare and competitive process, and the treatment of evidence, theories of harm and benefit, unilateral effects, innovation competition, important competitive force, foreclosure, and ecosystems. Greg offers a close and characteristically sharp assessment of what the draft clarifies, what it leaves uncertain, and whether these Guidelines really guide. Links: Transcript of the episode (https://tinyurl.com/3udc3zuv)
The European Commission has released draft Merger Guidelines that would replace its 2004 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and 2008 Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines and introduce new concepts such as resilience, sustainability, dynamic competition and innovation and investment competition into EU merger analysis. Greg Werden joins the podcast to discuss whether the draft reflects a meaningful change in the Commission’s analytical framework, a more interventionist enforcement posture, or both. We discuss the role of economics in the draft, the relationship between consumer welfare and competitive process, and the treatment of evidence, theories of harm and benefit, unilateral effects, innovation competition, important competitive force, foreclosure, and ecosystems. Greg offers a close and characteristically sharp assessment of what the draft clarifies, what it leaves uncertain, and whether these Guidelines really guide.
Links: