Agenda Archive

The Labour Party manifesto proposals on renationalisation: a personal comment from Mike Toms

June 2017

The UK Labour Party’s 2017 manifesto contains a proposal to renationalise some of the UK’s largest networks—electricity, gas, rail and post. Mike Toms, Non-Executive Director of Oxera, shares his reflections on this policy, which has risen in significance due to the recent growth in support for the Party

When algorithms set prices: winners and losers

June 2017

The digital revolution has led to a significant growth in companies’ ability to capture, store and analyse data about their customers, competitors and the wider world. Increasingly, companies are using this information to develop algorithms that set prices for them. But how might the automation of pricing through algorithms affect competitive outcomes in markets, and result in different consumers being charged different amounts for the same good or service?

Parity agreements and theories of harm in the hotel booking sector: a ‘no-show’?

June 2017

On 6 April 2017, the European Commission and ten national competition authorities published a joint report on the online hotel booking sector. The report’s primary focus was the impact on prices and commission rates of the removal of parity or ‘most-favoured-nation’ (MFN) clauses in European countries. The results were not as conclusive as some economists and lawyers expected. Why might this be, and what’s next for MFN clauses?