Innovation Markets, Future Markets, or Potential Competition: How Should Competition Authorities Account for Innovation Competition in Merger Reviews?

34 Pages Posted: 18 Jan 2014 Last revised: 3 Jun 2014

See all articles by Benjamin R. Kern

Benjamin R. Kern

Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences ; Philipps University Marburg - School of Business Administration and Economics

Date Written: January 16, 2014

Abstract

The relevant competitors in regard to innovation might, but not necessarily do, correspond to the identified competitors on actual product markets. Hence, the conventional analysis of product markets, in order to assess the potential anticompetitive effects of mergers, is insufficient to capture innovation competition in its full extent. As a consequence, the aim of this article is to introduce and compare the existing alternative approaches which can, in principle, be used for the assessment of anticompetitive innovation effects in merger review. By focusing on the applied U.S. Antitrust, it turns out that none of the existing approaches seems to be appropriate to fully account for innovation competition. However, the ‘Innovation Market Analysis’, the first framework especially designed for the assessment of innovation aspects, might still serve as a good starting point for the development of a revised assessment framework.

Keywords: Merger Review, Innovation Competition, Innovation Markets, Competition in Innovation, Future Markets

JEL Classification: B52, K21, L12, L41, O31

Suggested Citation

Kern, Benjamin René, Innovation Markets, Future Markets, or Potential Competition: How Should Competition Authorities Account for Innovation Competition in Merger Reviews? (January 16, 2014). World Competition: Law and Economics Review, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 173-206, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2380130 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2380130

Benjamin René Kern (Contact Author)

Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences ( email )

Karlsruhe
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.hs-karlsruhe.de/w/ueber-uns/personen/professorinnen/

Philipps University Marburg - School of Business Administration and Economics ( email )

Universitätsstrasse 24
Marburg, D-35032
Germany

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