Governments everywhere are increasingly interested in assessing the effects of their policies and the effectiveness of public institutions, and competition agencies are no exception. This Reference Guide contains an in-depth overview of all the issues linked to ex-post assessments and contains...

This paper provides a brief overview of the pro- and anti-competitive effects of vertical restraints as identified in the literature and case practice and discusses how pro-competitive effects or efficiencies are analysed and assessed within different legal and economic assessment frameworks....

This paper defines conglomerate mergers, setting out the reasons why firms engage in them and lays out the classical theories of harm associated with tying and bundling. It also describes how these theories have been adapted to digital markets, highlighting some of the key efficiencies stemming...

Competition authorities have developed various tools to detect cartels and substantiate the basis for opening investigations. Ex officio investigations, meaning investigations initiated by the authorities themselves, are derived from detection tools that require a higher level of proactivity...

The public procurement Directives only apply if a body is a contracting authority (contracting entity in the Utilities sector) within the definition of the Directives. SIGMA Brief 3 gives guidance on the notion of a contracting authority/entity under the directives (especially the concept of...