The Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission enforces competition law in the areas of antitrust, merger control, and state aids. This year's article provides first a general presentation of the role of the Chief Competition Economist's team and surveys some of the main...

A significant body of empirical research has documented a structural increase in margins across a wide range of industries and countries. This article analyses the potential implications of this trend for merger control. We argue that structural increases in firms' pricing power call for a...

According to empirical research, recent times have seen a significant increase in firms' profit margins. Higher profit margins are a reflection of increased pricing power. Prospective mergers are more likely to cause competition concerns the higher firms' pricing power is to begin with