Author
Listed:
- Tomaso Duso
- Elena Argentesi
- Paolo Buccirossi
- Roberto Cervone
- Alessia Marrazzo
Abstract
Over the past decades the grocery retail sector underwent a significant restructuring process throughout Europe. While competition from hard-discounters has grown, in most European countries concentration has also increased as a consequence of mergers and acquisitions among already powerful retail chains. These considerationslead antitrust authorities to very cautiously enforce competition policy in this sector with the aim of preventing the market getting worryingly concentrated. Ina study for the Dutch Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM), we examined the effects of a series of three national mergers in the Dutch grocery markets between 2009 and 2012 that have been approved by the ACM subject to divestitures. We find that the mergers did not have significant effects on prices. However, we find that the last mergersignificantly reduced the depth of products’ assortment and, consequently, reduced consumers’ choice. Moreover, the divestitures imposed by the ACM were onlypartially able to outweigh the reduction in variety caused by the mergers. In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat der Lebensmitteleinzelhandel in ganz Europa einen erheblichen Restrukturierungsprozess durchlaufen. Während der Wettbewerbsdruck durch die Billigdiscounter gestiegen ist, nahm gleichzeitig in weiten Teilen Europas die Marktkonzentration durch Fusionen und Übernahmen unter Einzelhandelsketten zu, die bereits vorher über eine erhebliche Marktmacht verfügten. Aus diesem Grund achten die Wettbewerbsbehörden in dieser Branche besonders sorgfältig auf die Einhaltung wettbewerbspolitischer Regelungen, damit die Marktkonzentration nicht ein besorgniserregendes Maß annimmt. In einer Studie für die niederländische Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM), haben wir die Auswirkungen dreier nationaler Unternehmenszusammenschlüsse im niederländischen Lebensmittelmarkt zwischen 2009 und 2012 untersucht, welche von der ACM unter der Auflage, Filialen zu verkaufen, genehmigt wurden. Wir kommen zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Zusammenschlüsse keine erheblichen Auswirkungen auf die Preise hatten. Allerdings reduzierte der letzte Zusammenschluss in signifikantem Maße die Breite des Sortiments und damit die Auswahlmöglichkeiten der Konsumenten. Die von der ACM angeordneten Filialverkäufe konnten die negativen Folgen durch die Zusammenschlüsse nur teilweise begrenzen.
Suggested Citation
Tomaso Duso & Elena Argentesi & Paolo Buccirossi & Roberto Cervone & Alessia Marrazzo, 2016.
"Unternehmenszusammenschlüsse im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel verringern die Produktvielfalt,"
DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 83(1), pages 11-22.
Handle:
RePEc:diw:diwwob:83-1-3
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More about this item
Keywords
Mergers;
Ex-post Evaluation;
Retail sector;
Supermarkets;
Grocery;
All these keywords.
JEL classification:
- L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
- L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
- L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
- L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
- D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
- K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
- C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
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