This paper provides a first attempt to understand how outcomes are determined by the standard institutions of merger control. In particular, we focus on the internationally standard 2-phase investigation structure and remedy negotiations of the form practiced by the EC. We find that there are...

Delineation of the relevant market forms a pivotal part of most antitrust cases. The standard approach is sequential. First the product market is delineated, then the geographical market is defined. Demand and supply substitution in both the product dimension and the geographical dimension will...

Although the 1996 'Notice on the non-imposition or reduction of fines in cartel cases' has been criticised by academics as lacking clarity and certainty, it has been described in European Commission literature as an 'indisputable success' and as having played an 'instrumental role' in uncovering...

Electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces) allow networks of buyers and sellers to conduct business online and to exchange information more efficiently using Internet technology. Despite the benefits that e-marketplaces potentially afford firms, concerns have been raised that these markets may...

A criminal offence requiring Ghosh dishonesty was introduced in the UK by the Enterprise Act 2002, primarily to enhance cartel deterrence as a complement to corporate fines. Yet the first convictions resulted from a US plea bargain in 2008. This paper identifies three obstacles to enhancing...

This paper demonstrates that the Most-Favoured-Customer (MFC) clause identified in the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) Report on Foreign Package Holidays behaves not like an MFC but rather as if it was a variant of a so far unstudied price matching guarantee. This provides a clearer...

This paper develops a signalling model to look at some effects of the inclusion of an efficiency defence in merger regulation. By incorporating Type I and Type II errors into the antitrust agency's pay-off function approval probabilities are endogenized. The agency can choose to use a fuzzy...

This paper questions whether discrimination between consumers by a dominant undertaking can and should constitute an abuse of a dominant position under Article 82EC. By finding that it can, the paper challenges the traditional interpretation of the discrimination ban under that provision, namely...

This paper analyses the raison d’être of the current initiative for the federal policy change in the US regarding the issues of passing-on defense and indirect purchaser standing in order to draw policy lessons for the EC in the light of the Commission’s Green Paper on private enforcement...

This paper questions whether the objective of Article 82EC is indeed enhancing ‘consumer welfare’ as suggested by the EC Commission when one examines the application of the provision thus far. It critically analyses the case law of the EC Commission and Courts to show that there is great...