News
The work and analyses produced by E.CA is widely recognised and discussed by renowned newspapers and broadcasters. Please scroll through the following list to explore recent coverage and relevant firm news.
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25.01.2012 New publication on competition law in regulated industries by E.CA staff
Rainer Nitsche, Lars Wiethaus
In recent years, competition authorities have applied general competition rules in regulated industries, in addition to or instead of the regulation there in force. This raises issues as the two sets of rules are not necessarily identical and the authorities in charge of applying them do not always pursue the same objectives. This article proposes criteria helping to distinguish cases in which competition law is likely to be a more or less useful complement to regulation. As for cases in which competition law may, in principle, be useful, the authors argue for an intervention that accounts for the objectives set by regulation.
Read the publication on the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice website.
24.01.2012 Article on access regulation and investment in next generation telephone networks
Rainer Nitsche, Lars Wiethaus
E.CA Economics published an article on access regulation and investment in next generation telephone networks in a top tier IO journal. Based on mathematical computing, the paper compares how different regulatory settings affect the development of high speed fibre networks. It is found that a traditional access regime in which an incumbent has to grant entrants cost-based access to its network would discourage investments into new networks to the detriment of consumers. In contrast, joint network developments in which incumbents and entrants share the risk of deploying fibre networks, whose profitability is yet uncertain, are likely to stimulate investments to the benefit of consumers.
View the external abstract.
05.01.2012 E.CA staff publish on market definition in shopping centre industry
Lars-Hendrik Röller, Jakub Kałużny, Rainer Nitsche
In light of some recent decisions by national competition authorities in Europe, the paper published in European Competition Journal considers how the choice of methodology impacts the product market definition in the shopping centre industry. It argues that relying predominantly on existing industry classifications and product characteristics is likely to lead to market definitions that are excessively narrow because these methodologies disregard actual substitutability patterns. Defined markets will be too narrow also if the effects of externalities common in the industry are ignored. The paper advocates that market definition following the standard SSNIP test logic while taking industry features into account is the superior approach.
View external abstract.