Economics of joint dominance

Recent court rulings, e.g., in the Gencor and Airtours cases, seem to indicate that the legal concept of joint dominance in oligopolistic markets is equivalent to the economic concept of collusion. This paper argues that the enlargement of the dominance concept to also include oligopolistic dominance is sensible and based on widely accepted economic theory. I discuss how competitive assessment in case law has taken seriously some economics lessons, but ignored some others. Economists on one hand and lawyers and antitrust authorities on the other hand seem to speak past each other on these issues. This paper attempts to bridge this gap, and to clarify the concept of collective dominance. I also discuss some recent advances in economic theory and empirical economic evidence related to the oligopolistic dominance that is relevant to the competition policy. – oligopoly ; dominant position ; market power ; competition policy ; merger