A market share exclusion contract between a seller and a buyer prevents rival sellers from competing for a share of the buyer's purchases. For non-discriminatory contracting we show that, unlike exclusion through exclusive dealing, market share exclusion can be profitable even when buyers...

This paper looks at whether the standard unilateral effects model can be applied to non-price competition parameters such as innovation. This question arises because competition authorities are intervening in horizontal mergers that are found to give rise to a “significant impediment to...

This paper examines the effects of platform most-favored-customer (PMFC) clauses on incentives for platforms to invest in demand-enhancing investments that might involve spillover effects. In a bilateral duopoly model incorporating competition between sellers and between platforms, we show that...

In the paper, the fundamental question is under what conditions loyalty discounts and rebates adopted by a dominant firm cause anti-competitive effects. Fidelity schemes, although extremely frequent in the market, if applied by a dominant firm, are likely to be judged as illegal per se, as...

This entry in the Oxford Handbook of New Private Law describes the parallels and mutual dialog between New Institutional Economics (NIE) and New Private Law (NPL). It observes that both fields share more than the word 'new' in their titles. NPL and NIE share methodological orientations; they...

We characterize collusion involving secret vertical contracts between retailers and their supplier – who are all equally patient ("vertical collusion"). We show such collusion is easier to sustain than collusion among retailers. Furthermore, vertical collusion can solve the supplier's...

We consider infinitely repeated vertical relations when a retailer can sell an established product and a new product that is initially inferior but can improve over time. We find that the retailer has an incentive to sell the new product more than what maximizes industry profits. The...

The challenge by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, and a prior challenge by DOJ and the Federal Communications Commission to Comcast's acquisition of NBC-Universal, have increased attention on vertical mergers. The standard approach identifies a tactic...

As technology and interconnectivity have continued to flourish, so too has an important and complex form of enterprise: the platform. Services like Uber, Google Search, Hulu, and American Express cater to distinct but deeply-interdependent “sides” of customers that derive value or revenues...

The rise of the platform economy has been the subject of celebration and critique. Platform companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Postmates have been rightfully celebrated as positively disruptive, introducing much–needed competition in industries that have been otherwise over–mature and...