New Publication: A New Concept of Market Power?

New Publication: A New Concept of Market Power?

Oliver Budzinski, Sophia Gaenssle and Annika Stöhr from the Chair for Economic Theory (Institute of Economics, Technische Universität Ilmenau) have published a new paper on "Outstanding Relevance across Markets: A New Concept of Market Power?" in the peer-reviewed journal Concurrences (Vol. 17 (3), 2020, pp. 38-43).

 

The paper deals with proposals to adjust the rules against abuses of market power and their enforcement vis-à-vis the digital economy. How can the market power and its abuse by big internet and tech companies like Google-Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and others be effectively combated by the competition authorities? Next to extending the classic policy instruments of abuse control, a new reform

proposal suggests to introduce an additional and novel type of market power: the outstanding relevance across markets (ORAM). From an economic perspective, such an institution is interesting as it emphasizes
non-horizontal and less direct anticompetitive abuses of market power - which exactly characterize the digital economy. We review what type of cases could be subject to such a concept of systemic market power. Furthermore, we address the question whether merger control could also benefit from an ORAM-style concept.

 

More papers on the digital economy from the Institute of Economics.