Self-Preferencing

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11117/rdp.v20i107.7503

Resumo

When markets at successive or complementary stages are imperfectly competitive, firms that operate at multiple stages typically have a strong incentive to purchase from, sell to, or otherwise coordinate with its own operations at adjacent stations compared with those of individual firms. But, to the extent that such self-preferencing eliminates double marginalization that would occur under vertical separation or otherwise facilitates coordination that is difficult to accomplish between firms, competition rules that discourage self-preferencing, such as restrictions on vertical mergers or integration, can harm consumers. In 2020, the United States Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission issue revised vertical merger guidelines that promised enforcement that more nearly resembles how they review horizontal mergers – that is, by predicting effects on static pricing incentives. But the economics of how vertical mergers on pricing incentives is more complicated than the economics of how horizontal mergers affect pricing incentives. If U.S. enforcement is based on a consumer welfare standard, the U.S. agencies will struggle to find a robust methodology for distinguishing anticompetitive from procompetitive vertical mergers. Self-preferencing has also played a key role in allegations of anticompetitive behavior in technologically advancing industries. A review of past allegations of anticompetitive product innovation against IBM, Microsoft, and Google reveals the challenges in designing rules that limit self-preferencing without acting as a drag on innovation.

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Biografia do Autor

Michael A. Salinger, Boston University School of Management. Boston (Massachusetts). United States of America.

Michael A. Salinger is the Jacqueline J. and Arthur S. Bahr Professor in Markets, Public Policy, and Law at the Boston University Questrom School of Business, where he has been on the faculty since 1990. From 2005 to 2007, he took a leave from Boston University to be the Director of the Bureau of Economics at the United States Federal Trade Commission. He earned his B.A. in economics from Yale in 1978 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982.

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Publicado

2023-10-31

Como Citar

A. Salinger, M. . (2023). Self-Preferencing. Direito Público, 20(107). https://doi.org/10.11117/rdp.v20i107.7503