The 2023 Merger Guidelines and Coordinated Effects: Recommendations for Robust Protection of Competition

Abstract

The 2023 Merger Guidelines include new criteria for evaluating proposed mergers for potential coordinated effects. This Article will examine lessons from explicit collusion to inform the implementation of these guidelines. Anticompetitive coordination has occurred throughout history in many and varied industries, usually in highly concentrated markets. Thus, protecting competition requires a skeptical attitude toward mergers in such concentrated oligopolies. Where markets are less concentrated, we argue that history, norms, and institutions can determine the risk of coordinated effects and should be included in the evaluation of proposed mergers.

Keywords: mergers, merger guidelines, coordinated effects, merger guidelines, coordinated effects

JEL Classification: L13, L41, G34