This presentation by Paulo Burnier (OECD Competition Expert) was delivered during a workshop on mergers held in the framework of the 2021 Virtual African Competition Forum on 29 June 2021.

1. Paulo Burnier da Silveira
29 June 2021
ACF MERGERS TRAINING WORKSHOP
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ON DIGITAL
MERGER CONTROL AROUND THE WORLD

2. Disclaimer
2
The opinions hereby expressed are personal and
may not reflect those from the OECD.

3. 1. Introduction
i. Merger control trends
2. Main challenges
i. Notification thresholds
ii. Market power
iii. Theories of harm
iv. Effects including efficiency analysis
3. Final remarks
Summary
3

4. 1. Introduction
4

5. 5
OECD Competition Trends 2021
http://www.oecd.org/competitio
n/oecd-competition-trends.htm
Competition enforcement
trends between 2015-19 for
56 jurisdictions.

6. Number of merger decisions and
notifications (2015-2019)
6
Source: OECD Competition Trends (2021)
2 671 2 759 3 069 3 174 3 039
1 467 1 396 1 360 1 461 1 503
3 282 3 499
3 605
3 828 3 682
317 400
449
429 412
8 049 8 284 8 566
9 155 9 272
1 000
2 000
3 000
4 000
5 000
6 000
7 000
8 000
9 000
10 000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Americas Asia-Pacific Europe Other Total Notifications

7. Number of merger prohibitions
(2015-2019)
7
Source: OECD Competition Trends (2021)
10
15 16
24
27
24
40
32
40 40
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Total number of prohibitions Total number of withdrawn notifications

8. Types of merger decisions (2019)
8
Source: OECD Competition Trends (2021)
Phase I clearances
without remedy
95.7%
Phase I
clearances with
Remedies
0.7%
Phase II
clearances
without remedy
2.2%
Phase II clearances
with Remedies
1.0%
Prohibitions
0.4%
Other
4.3%

9. 2. Main digital challenges
9

10. Notification thresholds
10
Source: OECD Competition Trends (2021)
# 51/54
# 15/54
# 12/54
# 5/54
Turnover
Assets
Market share
Transaction value
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Americas Asia-Pacific Europe Other

11. Market power
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• Lock-in consumers
• Switching costs
• Challenges for multi-homing
Network effects
• Zero or low marginal costs
• Economies of scope to enter related markets
Economies of scale
• Gatekeeper of platforms
• Ecosystems and conglomerate effects
• Leveraging strategies to gain market power in new markets
Business models
Market definition is a simple tool to assess market power

12. Theories of harm
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• Forced free riding
• Abusive leveraging
• Privacy policy tying
New theories of harm
• Exclusivity
• Margin squeeze
• Bundling
• Market foreclosure
Traditional theories of harm
Variants of established concepts

13. Effects
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• New entrants
• Market-share evolution
• Contractual
• Potential effect
Anticompetitive effects
• Innovation
• Quality
• Consumer satisfaction
Efficiency analysis
Balancing the risks of over and under-enforcement

14. 3. Final remarks
14

15. Final remarks
15
OECD (2020)

16. Thank you!
E-mail: paulo.burnier@oecd.org
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