Economic analysis at the heart of merger control

Merger control proceedings demand rigorous and credible economic analysis to achieve successful and sound outcomes. Navigating their complexity requires expertise in economics, econometrics, and data science to support clients at every stage of the process, from regulatory risk assessment and strategy design, to pre-notification, Phase I and Phase II investigations and remedies.

From complexity to clarity

Mergers can enable innovation, bring new products to market and benefit customers, but if a merger or acquisition threatens healthy competition, the authorities will intervene.

Economics provides a solid framework of analysis for procompetitive justifications and anticompetitive concerns, to support businesses and organisations on all aspects of merger control:

• Product market definition: empirical assessment of substitutability between products
• Geographic market definition: analysis of relevant catchment areas, price differentials across regions, and trade flows
• Concentration analysis: empirical analysis of market shares and concentration measures, across relevant products and markets
• Closeness of competition: rigorous empirical assessment of competitive constraints between products and firms
• Bidding data analysis: structured analysis of procurement and bidding patterns and outcomes
• Vertical and conglomerate mergers: assessment of ability and incentive to foreclose rivals following a merger
• Merger simulations: quantitative modelling of post-merger competitive effects
• Theoretical economic modelling: bespoke models tailored to the competitive dynamics of each case
• Efficiencies: robust economic analysis of efficiencies from a merger
• Remedy design: identification of the optimal and proportionate remedy to address competition concerns.

Unparalleled experience on both sides of the table

Oxera’s experts have extensive experience of complex merger proceedings, and have held senior positions at major competition authorities, including the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the UK. They have led the economic analysis on numerous merger cases, both in private practice and from within regulatory authorities including some of the highest-profile merger cases in recent years, such as: Adobe/Figma, Bayer/Monsanto, Broadcom/VMWare, Dow/DuPont, Facebook/Giphy, General Electric/Alstom, Mars/Kellanova, Microsoft/Activision, Prosus/Just Eat Takeaway and Veolia/Suez.

We’ve played a direct role in shaping the analytical frameworks and processes regulatory bodies use today, including the approach to innovation effects of mergers, changes to how competition authorities look at efficiencies and remedies, and reforms to the CMA’s merger investigation processes. Our economists had a senior role in the preparation of the current CMA’s Merger Assessment Guidelines, and have been closely involving in shaping the revised European Commission merger guidelines.

We know that each merger is unique and needs its own, bespoke approach to ensure that businesses and regulators find the best outcomes and solutions. Our deep knowledge and experience means we can help legal advisers and clients engage in a constructive and credible manner with regulators, and stay ahead by anticipating the questions and challenges they’ll face.

Our team supports merger proceedings across national competition authorities in Europe, harnessing our network of colleagues throughout Europe.

Sector and multi-disciplinary depth

We draw upon our dedicated specialists in industries including energy, transport, telecoms and financial services to ensure that deep sector expertise is harnessed alongside our merger control capabilities to deliver the most targeted and precise advice for each case.

With financial analysis playing an increasingly important role in merger control, we also work closely with our Finance and Valuation specialists to assess the financial viability of targets or propose divestments in the broader economic assessment of mergers and in particular efficiencies.

We draw upon the expertise of our data scientists for mergers which require complex data or document analysis.

Our experience

Our Team has assisted on a number of high profile mergers in recent years including, among others, Mars/ Kellanova, Naspers/ Just Eat Takeaway, UniCredit/ BPM, Danish State/ Copenhagen Airport, Nokia/ Infinera and Arcelik/ Whirlpool.