Since Mario Draghi's 2024 report on "The Future of European Competitiveness", identifying European (i) weaknesses in global innovation and, consequently, in global market impact, as well as (ii) regulatory overburden, the term competitiveness has been propelled into massive popularity. For instance,…
Commercial sports belong to the biggest entertainment industries in the world and, at the same time, are regularly raising antitrust concerns. This is partly due to the omnipresence of powerful market-internal regulators. These sport governing bodies set, implement, and enforce the rules and additionally…
Algorithm- and data-based recommendation systems (DARS) have become a central component of the digital economy, shaping how users access, evaluate, and consume information and goods. These systems encompass both search rankings tailored to estimated user preferences and direct recommendations such as…
State-owned firms from third countries play an increasingly significant role in international mergers and acquisitions, raising concerns about distortions of competition. These distortions arise from state-backed financial advantages, preferential treatment, and industrial policy objectives, potentially…
In dem vorliegenden Beitrag fassen wir die ökonomische Theorie von Media Bias und Misinformation zusammen und übertragen sie in das digitale Medienzeitalter. Dabei arbeiten wir heraus, inwieweit sich die theoretischen Wirkungsketten durch die Besonderheiten digitaler Informationsmärkte verändern (Abschnitt…
Digital platforms, ecosystems, and R&D-intensive sectors pose distinctive challenges for merger control. In these fast-evolving markets, shaped by technological change and shifting competitive dynamics, traditional ex-ante reviews often fall short in anticipating long-term outcomes. This paper proposes…
The automotive industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation driven by digitization, enabling original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to exert increasing control over vehicle functions, data, and - consequently - aftersales markets. Despite high relevance for consumers, regulatory scrutiny remains…
Identifying the boundaries of a market belongs to the important practices in most areas of antitrust and competition policy. While they are established practices for market definition and delineation, dynamic processes of competition and the new phenomenon of (digital) ecosystems of markets provide new…
The so-called 50plus1-rule in German football is a controversially discussed institution that regulates the investment behavior of professional football teams. This paper provides an empirical analysis of its effects. We gathered panel data on 47 teams in the German Major League Football ("Erste Bundesliga")…
A central component of the modernization of German abuse control, implemented with the 10th amendment of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition ("Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen", GWB), is Section 19a, which has been the subject of considerable discussion both before and after its implementation.…
This paper explores the evolving landscape of competition law enforcement, focusing on the dynamic interplay between ex-ante and ex-post approaches. Amidst the digital transformation and regulatory shifts, traditional enforcement mechanisms are being reevaluated. This study aims to dissect the economic…
Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblick über die jüngeren und gegenwärtigen Reformen im Bereich der deutschen und europäischen Wettbewerbspolitik und unterzieht diese einer ordnungsökonomischen Analyse. Dazu gehören zunächst die 9.-12. GWB-Novelle. Bemerkenswert ist hierbei die schiere Anzahl der Reformen…
In diesem Beitrag werden das deutsche Buchpreisbindungsgesetz und seine Bedeutung im digitalen Zeitalter kritisch beleuchtet. Das Gesetz schreibt eine vertikale Preisbindung sowohl für physische als auch für elektronische Bücher vor, mit den Zielen die Titelvielfalt und den lokalen Buchhandel zu fördern.…
The European Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a regulatory framework designed to address competition concerns in digital markets by imposing specific prohibitions and obligations on the core platform services of so-called gatekeepers. As the DMA is the first regulation of its kind worldwide, regulative uncertainties…
Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die speziellen Wettbewerbsprobleme, die durch die ökonomischen Besonderheiten auf Medienmärkten entstehen, sowie entsprechende Regulierungs- und Wettbewerbspolitikansätze zur Adressierung dieser. Zunächst werden die ökonomischen Charakteristika und Besonderheiten von…
Der vorliegende Beitrag wendet die dynamische Wettbewerbstheorie von Wolfgang Kerber und anderen auf aktuelle Fragen der Wettbewerbspolitik an. Damit zeigt der Beitrag, dass dynamische Wettbewerbstheorien sehr wohl zu konkreten wettbewerbspolitischen Empfehlungen führen und einen wichtigen Beitrag zum…
The model of perfect competition is one of the most famous, most important, and most misunderstood concepts in economics. Rather than aiming to be a full-blown model of real-world competitive markets, the perfect competition model isolates the decentralized coordination mechanism inherent in all competitive…
This comprehensive review of ex-post merger studies assesses the price effects of horizontal transactions to determine whether there are common post-merger price effects, both overall and in specific markets. The aim is to derive implications for policy makers and competition authorities in terms of…
Financial regulation in sports is usually discussed in the context of representing an instrument against “financial doping”. Notwithstanding the merits of this discussion, this paper takes the opposite perspective and analyses how market-internal financial regulation itself may anticompetitively influence…