Market outcomes are determined by the interaction of demand and supply. Both sides of any market need to work effectively to lead to low prices, good quality and high levels of innovation. Traditionally, the focus of competition enforcement has been on models that assume that consumers know their preferences and use available information to make rational decisions. Behavioural economics goes beyond these assumptions and describes how people behave in reality and what biases may affect their decision making. The debate on behavioural biases has intensified with the rise of online transactions, in which consumer decisions can be influenced by the design and characteristics of websites and apps, by the presentation of critical information, or by the ranking of the results of online searches. Behavioural biases can be magnified as consumers make decisions quickly and process vast amounts of information in today’s online and mobile environment.
In June 2022, the OECD held a roundtable that to explore how competition authorities use behavioural insights in competition cases, while drawing from the expertise developed by consumer protection agencies and the OECD Committee on Consumer Policy (CCP). From the discussion, it was noted that competition authorities take behavioural insights into account while enforcing competition law, highlighting in which steps of the proceedings (from market definition to the design of optimal remedies) consumer behaviour has been relevant for the assessment.
