Competition Policy and the Control of Buyer Power

A Global Issue

New Horizons in Competition Law and Economics series

Peter C. Carstensen, Fred W & Vi Miller Chair in Law Emeritus, University of Wisconsin Law School, Senior Fellow, American Antitrust Institute, US

这book provides a comprehensive overview of the economic and competition policy issues that buyer power creates. Drawing on economic analysis and cases from around the world, it explains why conventional seller side standards and analyses do not provide an adequate framework for responding to the problems that buyer power can create. Based on evidence that abuse of buyer power is a serious problem for the competitive process, the book evaluates the potential for competition law to deal directly with the problems of abuse either through conventional competition law or special rules aimed at abusive conduct. The author also examines controls over buying groups and mergers as potentially more useful responses to risks created by undue buyer power.

‘This is a must have volume for its sophisticated analysis of a long neglected issue in our field.’
– Spencer Weber Waller, World Competition

‘In a lucid and thorough exploration of buyer power, Peter Carstensen persuasively illustrates the welfare effects and societal costs. He offers a detailed review of buyer power exploitation and the means to tackle it using ex-ante and ex-post intervention. This excellent contribution to the legal and policy debate highlights the prevalence of buyer power in many industries and markets, its potential abuse, and the likely costs of limited antitrust enforcement.’
– Ariel Ezrachi, The University of Oxford, UK

‘Which is more harmful to the competitive process—abuse of buyer power or seller power? Which is more difficult for enforcers to control? Are monopsonies the “mirror image” of monopolies? Professor Carstensen tackles these important questions in this much needed addition to an under-researched topic. A cogent, compelling analysis of why buyer power requires much more attention from competition authorities and policymakers generally than it has received.’
– Maurice E. Stucke, The University of Tennessee; of counsel, The Konkurrenz Group, US

‘In this excellent book Peter Carstensen gives buyer power the attention it deserves. Long relegated to a secondary role in antitrust analysis, buyer power is an important source of inefficiency, harm to competition, and exploitation. This book is an exceptionally comprehensive, incisive, and thoughtful treatment of the issue. And it could not be more timely.’
– John B. Kirkwood, Seattle University School of Law, US