Recent Economic Themes and Trends in European Merger Control
London, England
7 December 2010
Hosted By: NERA Economic Consulting
Since the revised 2004 Merger Regulation, the introduction of the post of Chief Economist, and the publication of horizontal and non-horizontal merger guidelines, the European Commission's analysis of mergers and acquisitions has moved to a much greater focus on logical economic theories of harm and the appropriate quantitative data to test these theories.
In this seminar, of interest to competition lawyers, M&A advisers, in-house counsel, and senior executives, NERA Director Dr. Mark Williams provided an overview of the themes and trends in European merger control since 2004.
Based on the Commission's decisional practice under the new merger regulation, Dr. Williams set out the key market characteristics that determine antitrust risk. For example, a given level of market concentration and combined market share is associated with different degrees of competition policy scrutiny depending on whether the industry in question is manufacturing or energy; whether the geographic market is global, European, or national; and whether the market features government restrictions.
In addition to a statistical analysis of recent merger control trends and themes, Dr. Williams also explained new economic developments in merger control analysis, in particular the concepts of upward pricing pressure (UPP) and merger simulation, which are increasingly employed to investigate non-coordinated effects.
To obtain a copy of the presentation slides, please contact Mary Davies at mary.davies@nera.com or +44 20 7659 8804.
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