3 weeks ago I had the privilege to be invited as one of the paper discussants of the 1st BECCLE Competition Policy Conference organized in Bergen.
The Conference was a great success for BECCLE and all my recognition to my fellow co-workers that were part of the orginazing team (I was not one of them). Not only it gather a truly remarkable group of keynote speakers, but also the papers presented by PhD candidates and young post-doc were of high quality.
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| The event took place at the Norwegian School of Economics, just outside Bergen © NHH |
In this conference I presented my views concerning market definition for buyer power cases. In a nutshell my (quite long paper) analyze market definition and market power assessment as two fundamental steps carried out by
competition authorities – and later on reviewed by courts – whenever dealing with alleged
breaches of competition law by undertakings. They are, however, mostly centered in selling side
cases. This paper puts forward that a mere reverse of the standard methodologies employed for
selling side cases are insufficient for the application in buyer side cases. Thus, it is necessary reassessing
the current techniques and their application to be applied to buyer power cases. I submit
that in all buyer power cases the market definition ought to be made in both the upstream market
and downstream market by adopting a dualistic market definition in buyer power cases. Particular
attention ought to be paid to the circumstance of whether the undertaking has market power in the
downstream market as this will directly affect whether the conduct is anticompetitive or not.
Lastly, this dualistic definition is justified as it fully captures the competitive effects of
monopsony or bargaining power and allows for a proper appreciation of buyer power’s welfare
effects from a consumer’s perspective.
The working paper I presented is available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2600471
I will be presenting a reviewed version of this paper on May 28-29th in the upcoming Annual Workshop of the Competition Law and Economics Network organized by TILEC in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Please let me know of your comments/suggestions regarding my paper on market definition in buyer power cases!
