Critically assess the role of efficiencies in merger assessment

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Law - Civil / Private, Trade, Anti Trust Law, Business Law, grade: 1,3, University of Reading, course: European Competition Law, language: English, abstract: The first section of the present essay discusses historically the European Commission's approach towards efficiencies. The second section elaborates on the choice of welfare standards and explains the European approach of adopting the consumer welfare standard. The third section outlines types of efficiencies according to the economic literature. The fourth section discusses the three cumulative conditions of the European Commission in order to consider efficiency claims. The next section reveals the Commission decisional practice in cases of efficiency claims and analyses its development. In the last chapter more attention is paid to theory and practice of efficiencies in cases of non-horizontal mergers.