The debate on how best to use and adjust the current competition policy framework and tools to deliver benefits to society in a changing world continues to evolve as competition authorities gain experience in both antitrust and merger cases in various industries. This experience has shown that challenges to effective competition do not come solely from anti-competitive behaviour and merger strategies.
For example, when markets are characterised by high or discriminatory prices or poor quality, the cause may not be anticompetitive conduct by incumbents, or agreements between firms, but instead market features such as concentration, high barriers to entry, behavioural bias leading to consumer lock-in, network effects, anticompetitive regulation, or distortions of competitive neutrality.
In December 2020, the OECD Global Forum on competition discussed the key questions facing competition authorities when considering market studies and emerging competition issues, notably:
- What type of emerging competition issues are competition authorities currently facing?
- What role can the market study tool play to address them?
- What are the strategic considerations competition authorities take into account when deciding whether to use the market study tool
The key findings of the discusion can be accessed here, a detailed summary here and below, all session information and materials including contributions from participating delegations and speakers.
