Nowadays, merger control predominantly relies upon a strict analysis of the effects from merger and acquisitions on effective competition. However, there is scope for so-called public interest considerations in several European merger control regimes and recently a number of European politicians...

This paper provides an economic analysis of recent vertical and horizontal mergers in the U.S. industry for audiovisual media content, including the AT&T-Time Warner and the Disney-Fox mergers. Using a theory-driven approach, we examine economic effects of these types of mergers on market...

Mit der Umsetzung der 7. Novelle des Gesetzes gegen Wettbewerbsbe-schränkungen (GWB) wurde im Jahr 2005 die Ausnahmeregelung des sog. Ministerkartells nach § 8 GWB ersatzlos gestrichen. Ähnlich dem noch bestehenden Instrument der Ministererlaubnis für Fusionen nach § 42 GWB konnte bis dahin...

In an industry where regulated firms interact with unregulated suppliers, we investigate the welfare effects of a merger between regulated firms when cost synergies are uncertain before the merger and their realization becomes private information of the merged firm. The optimal merger policy...

I analyze empirically all European Commission's decisions regarding “unilateral effects” aspects of horizontal mergers before and after the 2004 reform, which introduced the “significant impediment to effective competition” test in merger policy. I find that, after the reform, the...

Should internet era merger policy differ from industrial era merger policy? Platform ecosystems rely on economies of scale, data-driven economies of scope, high-quality algorithmic systems, and strong network effects that frequently promote winner-take-most markets. Their market dominance has...

Merger control plays a central role in competition policy. When assessing proposed mergers, Competition Authorities should consider its impact on all relevant markets. Large mergers between manufacturers typically impact competition, thus requiring the approval of Competition Authorities....

Mit der Umsetzung der 7. Novelle des Gesetzes gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen (GWB) wurde im Jahr 2005 die Ausnahmeregelung des sog. Ministerkartells nach § 8 GWB ersatzlos gestrichen. Ähnlich dem noch bestehenden Instrument der Ministererlaubnis für Fusionen nach § 42 GWB konnte bis dahin...

Since initially presented in the 1982 Department of Justice Horizontal Merger Guidelines, market definition has been adopted nearly worldwide to see if a merger would substantially lessen competition. This framework is also useful for addressing the similarly counterfactual question of whether...

Das Instrument der Ministererlaubnis ist ein vieldiskutierter Sonderfall in der deutschen Wettbewerbspolitik, bei welchem der Bundeswirtschaftsminister einen vom Bundeskartellamt (BKartA) untersagten Zusammenschluss bei Vorliegen besonderer Gründe im Nachhinein doch noch erlauben kann. Im...