The starting point in any type of competition analysis is the definition of the “relevant” market. There are two fundamental dimensions of market definition: (i) the product market, that is, which products to group together and (ii) the geographic market, that is, which geographic areas to group together. Market definition takes into account both the demand and supply considerations. On the demand side, products must be substitutable from the buyer’s point of view. On the supply side, sellers must be included who produce or could easily switch production to the relevant product or close substitutes. Market definition generally includes actual and potential sellers, that is, firms that can rapidly alter their production processes to supply substitute products if the price so warrants. The rationale for this is that these firms will tend to dampen or curb the ability of existing firms in the market to raise price above the competitive level. The location of buyers and sellers will determine whether the geographic market is local, regional, national or international. If markets are defined too narrowly in either product or geographic terms, meaningful competition may be excluded from the analysis. On the other hand, if the product and geographic markets are too broadly defined, the degree of competition may be overstated. Too broad or too narrow market definitions lead to understating or overstating market share and concentration measures.
Source: OECD
The application of competition rules to the conduct and concentrations of employers has been called ‘the new frontier for competition policy’ (see here). This so-called ‘labour antitrust’ has been growing rapidly especially on the other side of the Atlantic over the last fifteen years (see here). ‘All eyes are on labor’ in the United States…
The recent judgment of the CJEU in Booking.com represents yet another development in the long series of cases concerning price parity clauses in the platform economy. In Booking.com’s case, the judgment represents the end of the line for its parity clauses. In its greater context of applying EU competition law in the digital economy, the…
Malta’s Office for Competition (“the Office”) has issued a press release, noting that on the 18 September 2024, it issued a decision prohibiting the acquisition by Lidl Immobiliare Malta Limited (“Lidl”) of property owned by Said Investments Limited and leases belonging to another major supermarket chain on the island (“Scott’s”) bringing a tentative end to…
On 27 June 2024, the EU Court of Justice (“CJEU”) issued its judgments in the Perindopril (Servier) case. The judgments follow a European Commission (“EC”) decision of 9 July 2014, and a series of General Court (“GC”) judgments of 12 December 2018 in relation to appeals against that EC decision. The case started with a…
On June 6, 2024, AG Collins rendered his opinion in the referral request by the Amsterdam District Court (“ADC”) regarding price parity clauses and product market definition in the context of litigation involving Booking.com (“Booking”), the online platform acting as an intermediary between end customers and hotels, also called online travel agent (OTA). Summary…
Many of the most challenging transactions reviewed under the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) in recent years involved their likely effects on non-price competitive factors: innovation; quality and product differentiation; data protection and privacy; sustainability; and capacity and reliability of supply. These topics are discussed briefly, or not at all, in the Commission’s guidelines on the…
On 8 February 2024, the Commission published the long-awaited final text of the revised Market Definition Notice. Over a quarter of a century after the adoption of the first Market Definition Notice in 1997, we have a new and improved version ready for the modern age. The revised Notice covers a lot of ground: it…
On 12 July 2023, the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) issued its decision in the case S/0013/21 – Amazon/Apple Brandgating (the Decision) imposing a fine of €143.6 million on Apple and Amazon for restricting inter and intra-brand competition in the sale of Apple products on the Spanish Amazon marketplace contrary to Articles 1…
Factual background During the summer of 2020, news came out about a claim made by Slack against Microsoft for abusing its dominance by tying Teams to the Microsoft and Office 365 software packages. The claim at the time was that Microsoft had been forcing millions of users to install Teams and denied them the possibility…
Introduction Latin America as well as Chile, have developed a nascent practice in digital markets in the last years. According to a recent survey, between 2015 and 2023 Latin American competition authorities have led 99 investigations, including enforcement activity (both regarding cartel and unilateral conduct) and advocacy. In the case of Chile, the competition authority…
