The Analysis of Coordinated Effects in EU Merger Control: Where Do We Stand after Sony/BMG and Impala?

The recent Impala Judgment by the CFI on the Sony/BMG Decision by the Commission represents the most important ruling on collective dominance since Airtours. We review both the Decision and the Judgment and derive implications for the institutional and substantive development of EU Merger Control. Firstly, Impala introduces an ambitious symmetric standard of proof for prohibition and clearance decisions by the Commission. While alleviating fears of an increasing number of false positives in the aftermath of Airtours, this entails the problem of how to deal with cases in which neither the existence, nor the absence of anticompetitive effects can be proven to the required standard. Secondly, the ongoing process of increasing the role of third parties in European Merger Control is fuelled. Thirdly, Impala has the potential to herald a comeback of coordinated effects analysis, further precising the conditions for establishing this kind of anticompetitive effect. Additionally, given the characteristics of the music industry, we criticise a lack of in-depth economic analysis of non-price competition issues, such as innovations and product diversity

Economic models: the past, present and future?

This paper outlines a sociological perspective on the usefulness of economic models in assessment and policy-making. It combines an overview of the history of macro-economic modelling research in the UK with insights drawn from the author's own research into the economic forecasts and policy recommendations made by the Panel of Independent Forecasters to the UK Government during 1993. It argues that one of the most important achievements of the Panel was to communicate some of the diversity and excitement of its economic (and econometric) models. The more recent policy of giving operational responsibility for interest rate decisions to the Bank of England may have the opposite effect, and creates the potential for a ‘closed’ institutional space within which a particular economic analysis may be uncritically accepted