How effective are remedies in merger cases? A European and national assessment

Polemis, Michael; Oikonomou, Aikaterina

doi:10.1080/17441056.2018.1484590

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…1 In some of these decisions, the EC required merging parties to offer substantive remedies to, in principle, offset the anti-competitive effects of the merger (see e.g. Polemis, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Retrospective Evaluation of the GDF/Suez Merger: Effects on the Belgian Gas Hub

Argentesi¹,

Banal‐Estañol²,

Seldeslachts³

2021

The Energy Journal

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We present an ex-post analysis of the effects of GDF's acquisition of Suez in 2006, which created one of the world's largest energy companies. We perform a series of econometric analyses on the market for trading at the Zeebrugge gas hub in Belgium. Removing barriers to entry and facilitating access to the hub through ownership unbundling were an important part of the objectives of the remedies imposed by the European Commission. Our analyses show a robust price decline after the merger. Additional evidence on traded volumes and hub participants is in line with an increased liquidity at the hub post-merger. This suggests the remedies were effective in limiting the potential anti-competitive effects of the merger. Moreover, it suggests that ownership unbundling has generated improved access to the hub. Therefore, remedies may have done more than simply mitigate the potential anti-competitive effects of the merger; they may have effectively created competition.

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“…1 In some of these decisions, the EC required merging parties to offer substantive remedies to, in principle, offset the anti-competitive effects of the merger (see e.g. Polemis, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Retrospective Evaluation of the GDF/Suez Merger: Effects on the Belgian Gas Hub

Argentesi¹,

Banal‐Estañol²,

Seldeslachts³

2021

The Energy Journal

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Coordination of Market Behaviour by Joint Venture Parent Companies and the Presumption of Restriction of Competition

Kostecka-Jurczyk

2021

Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics

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Mergers, Acquisitions and Merger Control in an Algorithmic Pricing World

Coutts¹

2022

Journal of Competition Law &Amp; Economics

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This paper considers whether pricing algorithms present novel issues that existing merger control frameworks and practices are inadequate to address, particularly in relation to pre-merger disclosure of pricing algorithms and the suitability of current tests and remedies for addressing coordinated effects. Through a comparative and critical analysis of the merger control regimes and practices of the European Union, United Kingdom, and Australia, this paper finds that whilst such regimes and practices are broadly adequate for dealing with algorithmic transactions, there are nonetheless potential areas for improvement. Disclosure of a pricing algorithm may contravene prohibitions on the sharing of competitively sensitive information. As such, merger parties may need to rethink aspects of their usual due diligence procedures. Pricing algorithms may also increase the potential for coordinated effects to arise in some markets that would ordinarily have been considered too complex, asymmetric, opaque, or insufficiently concentrated for tacit coordination to occur, or be used to retaliate more effectively against deviations from a coordinated equilibrium, or to raise the height of barriers to entry. Competition authorities may therefore need to amend their standard approach to investigating and assessing coordinated effects, as well as their traditional approach to remedies.

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How effective are remedies in merger cases? A European and national assessment

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

A Retrospective Evaluation of the GDF/Suez Merger: Effects on the Belgian Gas Hub

A Retrospective Evaluation of the GDF/Suez Merger: Effects on the Belgian Gas Hub

Coordination of Market Behaviour by Joint Venture Parent Companies and the Presumption of Restriction of Competition

Mergers, Acquisitions and Merger Control in an Algorithmic Pricing World

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