Anti-competitive buyer power under UK and EC merger control — too much of a good thing?

While mergers that increase a customer's buyer power are traditionally considered beneficial for competition, the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission are increasingly assessing whether this may have anti-competitive effects.

In this chapter for Global Legal Insights: Merger Control 2018, Burak Darbaz, Ben Forbes and Mat Hughes consider the circumstances that lead to anti-competitive buyer power, assess related theories of harm, and evaluate recent UK and EU merger cases.