On 14 April 2022, the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published E.CA Economics’ ex post evaluation of its approach to vertical mergers. The CMA retained us to look at four recent mergers with a vertical component and evaluate whether CMA’s assessment was reasonable and correct. We also reviewed the current thinking on vertical mergers to help the CMA learn from the latest developments.

We found that the CMA carried out, on the whole, high quality analysis with only a small number of analytical choices we would not have made. The CMA appeared more lenient to vertical mergers than horizontal mergers, perhaps more than would be justified, although we did not conclude the CMA should have blocked any of the mergers we studied in detail. We also found that the CMA would need to continue to evolve its toolkit to capture accurately the complexities that vertical mergers bring, including making potentially uncomfortable decisions in the platform markets space.

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Press release

E.CA Economics will assist the European Commission in the revision of the Railway Guidelines. Together with LEAR, University of East Anglia and Sheppard Mullin, E.CA will provide an impact assessment support study for the review of the Community guidelines on State aid for railway undertakings. It will provide factual, analytical and data inputs that contribute to ensuring that the Guidelines set the rules applicable to the rail sector and to the entire value chain involved in the modal shift from road to rail and other less polluting transport modes. Over 140 stakeholders (among others granting authorities, regulatory bodies, industry associations, and railway and logistics companies) from 13 different countries will be contacted via surveys and targeted interviews to collect relevant data and meaningful insights. Industry experts from Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds will be supporting the consortium.

As part of the revision process of the current Community Guidelines on State aid for railway undertakings (Railway Guidelines) from 2008, the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission (DG COMP) has commissioned this external support study. The fitness check of the Railway Guidelines conducted in 2019 and 2020 confirmed that the Guidelines are not fit-for-purpose and require a full-fledged review to align them with the market and regulatory developments, in particular to make them fit for the full liberalisation of the rail sector following in particular the adoption of the Fourth Railway Package in 2016. This review is also required to support the EU policy priorities in the context of the Green Deal and the increased importance of a modal shift from road to less polluting transport modes such as rail and inland waterways in order to meet the Union’s emissions reduction target by 2050.

As of February 2022, Prof. Lars-Hendrik Röller, PhD, will rejoin as a director the European economics consultancy E.CA Economics. Lars-Hendrik Röller served as the first chief economist with DG Competition at the European Commission, and recently as the chief economic advisor to the German Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel. He is a proven expert in industrial economics and has unique expertise in providing economic advice in competition cases. His key topics of interest will include digital, energy, health and transportation markets, and he will be responsible for driving the international business at E.CA Economics.

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Press Release DE

Our director Alexis Walckiers has been appointed assessor of the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA). “I am delighted to have the opportunity to sit as an assessor for the Belgian Competition Authority. This is an important role, and I look forward to contributing to a balanced decision process. On a personal note, I am also very enthusiastic to get to see the many friends I made at the BCA from time to time.”

The BCA comprises an Investigation Service (the Investigation and Prosecution Service) and a decision-making body (Competition College). The decision-making body is the Competition College for all infringement cases that are not settled or closed by the Investigation and Prosecution Service, as well as all non-simplified merger control procedures. The BCA President presides over the Competition College. For each case, the Competition College consists of the president and two assessors.

Congratulations to Juri Demuth, Hans W. Friederiszick and Steffen Reinhold who’s article has been shortlisted for the 2022 Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards.

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New year, next step: it’s time to celebrate the promotion of our excellent colleagues.

Promotion to Associate Principal: Rafael Aigner

Promotion to Manager: Alexander Paul, Arvid Viaene

Promotion to Senior Economist: Ignacio Balaguer López, Alix De Loustal, Simon Franke, Niklas Gebhard, Michael Kaiser and Jan Christopher Rönn

Promotion to Economist: Luca Rancati

Congratulations!

E.CA Economics has once again been recommended both by Who’s Who Legal (WWL) and Global Competition Review (GCR). Both offer a comprehensive listing and analysis of the world’s top antitrust and competition practices.

In the guide “Germany 2022 – Competition Economists”, WWL states that “E.CA Economics stands out with three listings here.” Hans W. Friederiszick, Simone Kohnz and Rainer Nitsche were named to that list as highly recommended competition economists. Who’s Who Legal annually identifies the foremost legal practitioners in multiple areas of business law by evaluating more than 250,000 third-party recommendations and conducting 5,000 interviews with leading practitioners.

GCR listed E.CA for the 14th time in a row as of the world’s leading antitrust economics consultancies: “A compact consultancy that solely focuses on competition matters, E.CA Economics punches above its weight with teams in Berlin, Munich, Brussels and London.” The “Economics 23” ranking is based on measures including the number of dedicated antitrust economists in the firm, work over the past year, and the number of nominations to Who’s Who Legal: Competition.

WWL’s overview is available here.

GCR’s  overview is available here.

The firm’s 2022 Economics 23 profile is available here.

We are passionate about Competition Economics: How about you? Let‘s meet and find out this Friday at the Business Networking Day 2021, organised by the Toulouse School of Economics. You will have the opportunity to discover new insights for your consulting career in competition economics – virtually with Valeria Plata Franco and on site in Toulouse with Alix de Loustal and Juri Simons.

When: 26.11.2021, 8.30 am-5.30 pm

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