Stratégie d'élévation des coûts des concurrents pour préserver un système productif agro-alimentaire : le cas d'une filière fromagère d'appellation d'origine

The research of a market power based on a strategy of raising rivals' costs can settle out of vertical integration strategy or suppliers control process. We show that some business companies (farmers, agro-food processing firms) related within an agro-food local productive system try to control for the better the rules which govern the PDO cheese production chain. We use the theory of Raising Rivals' Costs to understand and scrutinize the economic consequences of the functioning of juridical implements. We suggest that the collective control of the PDO production rules sheds light on the strategy of Raising Rivals' Costs to protect the cheese productive system and its benefits from rivals.