Invitational Symposium on the Non-Price Effects of Mergers

On Wednesday, June 15, 2016, the American Antitrust Institute hosted its 2016 Invitational Symposium, Non-price Effects And Mergers: A Multidisciplinary Perspective.  The symposium examined the increasing importance of and emphasis on non-price dimensions of competition in merger analysis. This included the effects of a merger on competition involving product quality, variety, service, innovation, etc. Experts from law, economics, and the business schools convened to offer insights on the nature and prospective role of non-price effects in merger analysis, challenges that they pose for antitrust enforcement, and suggested approaches for highlighting and integrating such analysis into enforcement decisions and competition policy.

The symposium featured two panels and a capstone roundtable discussion. The first panel featured multidisciplinary perspectives from the economics, law, and the business schools. This panel took up issues relating to strategic management and marketing decisions, integration decisions, R&D strategy, and product positioning as they pertain to variety, quality (including privacy concerns), service offerings, and innovation. The second panel gathered experts from the enforcement community experienced in a variety of merger cases involving non-price effects. They debated the substantive and evidentiary issues involving non-price effects in merger analysis, with the goal of sketching a landscape against which non-price effects can gain traction in enforcement decision-making and inform competition policy more generally.