Recent Developments at DG Competition: 2017/2018

• Main Authors: Amelio, A. (Author), Buettner, T. (Author), Hariton, C. (Author), Koltay, G. (Author), Papandropoulos, P. (Author), Sapi, G. (Author), Valletti, T. (Author), Zenger, H. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer New York LLC 2018
• Subjects: aid; Antitrust; comparative study; competition policy; Competition policy; Counterfactual; Europe; European Commission; Google; law enforcement; merger; Mergers; Price discrimination; pricing policy; State aid; World Wide Web
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• ISBN: 0889938X (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1007/s11151-018-9671-7

The Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission enforces competition law in the areas of antitrust, merger control, and state aids. This year’s article provides first a general presentation of the role of the Chief Competition Economist’s team and surveys some of the main achievements of the Directorate General for Competition over 2017/2018. The article then reviews: the Google Search (Shopping) case, the role of price discrimination in state aid cases; and the use of counterfactuals in merger cases where alternative transactions might have occurred absent the merger. © 2018, The Author(s).