Worldwide, the overwhelming majority of large horizontal mergers are cleared by antitrust authorities unconditionally. The presumption seems to be that efficiencies from these mergers are sizeable. We calculate the compensating efficiencies that would prevent a merger from harming consumers for...

The controversy around the breakaway European Super League, set to conquer the UEFA Champions League, and the surrounding antitrust proceedings revive the academic discussion about the monopoly power of sport-internal governing bodies (like the UEFA), the justification for and limits of their...

The European Commission has proposed a new regulatory tool for the governance of digital markets. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) intents to limit the market behavior of socalled gatekeeper companies to ensure contestable and fair digital markets. We review the provisions of the DMA both from a...

This paper analyses all final merger decisions by the European Commission from the beginning of 1990 up to the end of 2019. We use a novel dataset, containing information about 6245 merger cases from all economic sectors and combining all sorts of decisions, inclusive of withdrawn and prohibited...

This comment addresses the opinion of the Advocate General (AG) of the European Court of Justice on the pending case European Super League versus UEFA/FIFA. It takes a critical perspective on selected aspects of the opinion's reasoning from a (sports) economics perspective. Highlighting the...

Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet drei zentrale Diskussionsbereiche mit Blick auf die Anwendung des Wettbewerbsrechts auf kommerzialisierte Sportmärkte im Allgemeinen und Märkte für den europäischen Spitzenfußball im Speziellen. Hierbei handelt es sich um die wettbewerbspolitische und...

We study the determinants of common European merger policy over its first 25 years, from 1990 to 2014. Using a novel dataset at the level of the relevant antitrust markets and containing all relevant merger cases notified to the European Commission, we evaluate how consistently arguments related...

Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert die im Energiesektor erfolgten Ministererlaubnisse vor dem Hintergrund der Betrachtung der Gemeinwohlbegründung 'Energieversorgungssicherheit in Deutschland'. Anhand der vertieften Untersuchung des Falles E.ON/Ruhrgas als zuletzt ministererlaubter Fusion im...

Deutschland und die gesamte Europäische Union (EU) haben sich sehr ambitionierte Klimaschutzziele gesetzt, die nur mit verstärkten Anstrengungen erreichbar sind. Zur Erreichung dieser Klimaschutzziele müssen alle möglichen Mittel herangezogen werden. Dazu zählt auch das Wettbewerbsrecht mit...

Economic dynamism is fundamental to productivity and living standards. Several important metrics suggest that the Australian economy has become less dynamic over recent decades. The share of workers starting a new job has fallen. Among employing businesses, the start- up rate has declined. On...