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The Use Of Customer Surveys For Market Definition And The Competitive Assessment Of Horizontal Mergers

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  • Graeme Reynolds
  • Chris Walters

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the U.K. Competition Commission's (CC) extensive use of customer surveys in merger control. We point out how the U.K.'s “phase two” merger regime compels the CC to decide upon, design, and commission a customer survey almost as soon as its merger investigation begins. We highlight the effect that this has on two areas of the CC's merger control process that use customer surveys—definition of the relevant market and assessment of the competitive effects of a merger in the relevant market. We illustrate how to avoid seven consequential pitfalls in using customer surveys with case-study examples from two recent CC horizontal merger inquiries. We suggest that customer surveys, carefully done, have provided useful insights for the CC, but the complications of doing them have meant that they always have been considered in the context of other evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • Graeme Reynolds & Chris Walters, 2008. "The Use Of Customer Surveys For Market Definition And The Competitive Assessment Of Horizontal Mergers," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 411-431.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jcomle:v:4:y:2008:i:2:p:411-431.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/joclec/nhm036
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lapo Filistrucchi & Damien Geradin & Eric van Damme, 2012. "Identifying Two-Sided Markets," Working Papers - Economics wp2012_01.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    2. Christopher Conlon & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2021. "Empirical properties of diversion ratios," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 693-726, December.
    3. Guy Aridor, 2022. "Market Definition in the Attention Economy: An Experimental Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 10190, CESifo.
    4. Øystein Daljord, 2009. "An Exact Arithmetic Ssnip Test For Asymmetric Products," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 563-569.
    5. Christopher T. Conlon & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2013. "An Experimental Approach to Merger Evaluation," NBER Working Papers 19703, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices

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