Gürkaynak, Gönenç; (2023) Innovation Considerations in Merger Control: Competition Law At Crossroads. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text Gurkaynak_10169354_thesis_id_removed.pdf Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 May 2024. Download (2MB)

Abstract

The concept of innovation, which took over a myriad of meanings throughout its history, has been surrounded with controversies and negative connotations before gaining its recent and much more favourable perception. Nevertheless, there seems to be a lingering reluctance to wholeheartedly embrace innovation and fully incorporate it into public strategy, despite economic theorists demonstrating time and time again that innovation is the primary stimulant of economic growth. It is certainly a challenge for competition authorities to strike a balance in enforcement of merger control in innovative markets, especially with today`s digital markets and their fast-evolving, future-oriented and therefore inherently imprecise nature. Even so, the research shows that there is still a way to go before balance can be truly achieved. Thus, this thesis first sets out the “state of play” by tracing the evolution of innovation throughout history and the role of innovation in competition law theory and merger control. It then discusses the competition authorities` approach and enforcement practices in the European Union, United Kingdom and United States, in order to expose the asymmetry, in the way innovation is assessed as a sword and as a shield for competition law enforcement. Although innovation seems to be recognized as a crucial factor in merger control at first glance, this is not sufficient nor unbiased, and the asymmetry runs the risk of perverse enforcement and actually hindering innovation efforts, instead of protecting them. Accordingly, this research maintains that the competition authorities risk falling short of their primary objective of consumer welfare, unless they are willing to closely assess each case by using their own information and analytical resources, notwithstanding where the burden of proof lies, and not hesitating to step outside the traditional methods that do not address the dynamics of the innovative markets.

Download activity - last month

Export as CSVXMLJSON

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLCSVJSON

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as JSONXMLCSV

Archive Staff Only

View Item