26 February 2020  Paris  

A recent fall in the labour share of income has helped fuel rising inequality and populist demand for dramatic reform of competition law. While these pushes cannot find an immediate response in competition law enforcement, they have stirred a debate within the competition community on monopsony and labour market power retained by employers, and on when exercise of employer monopsony power infringes competition law.

In June 2019, the OECD held a hearing aimed at discussing the anticompetitive concerns in labour markets. The session will focus on the factors contributing to the creation of monopsony power and its effects on workers and consumers. It will explore why cases involving monopsony power have been relatively rare, and what use competition authorities could make of their enforcement powers to prevent the creation of monopsony power, for example through mergers or no-poaching agreements, and the abuse of that power. Other ways to increase the countervailing market power of workers and to address downward pressure on wages and job losses will also be considered.

The topic will be explored again during the 2020 Competition Open Day to held on 26 February 2020 at the OECD Centre in Paris. More information can be found at http://oe.cd/comp-open-day-20

Best Practice Competition Roundtables 

OECD Competition

JUNE 2019 ROUNDTABLE INFORMATION

INVITED SPEAKERS

KEY MATERIALS

» OECD Background Note   EN | FR

» Competition Policy for Labour Markets by Herbert Hovenkamp

» Monopsony and the Business Model of Gig Economy Platforms by Marshall Steinbaum 

Market Concentration, 2018

Does competition kill or create jobs? 2015

CONTRIBUTIONS

2020 OECD COMPETITION OPEN DAY

Labour markets is one of the topics of the Competition Open Day. An event open to all competition community and the media.

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WATCH THE WEBCAST

» See a video about the event

Read a blog post on the topic:  Collective bargaining 4.0: Using labour law to extend coverage to new forms of work

VIDEO

Professor Hebert Hovenkamp talks about labour market concentration and what competition law can do about it