Empirical methods have become increasingly more important in European merger control, especially under the new significant impediment to effective competition test, which explicitly encompasses unilateral effects. Yet, the European Commission had already applied sophisticated quantitative techniques under the old standard of dominance. On the basis of the merger decisions of Volvo/Scania, Philips/Agilent, and GE/Instrumentarium, this article analyzes the evolution of Commission practice in assessing and quantifying price increases from mergers, from qualitative considerations to simulation models. It is to be expected that similar approaches will become very frequent in future European merger control.

This abstract is published with permission of Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb, Issue 2, February 2005, Copyright 2005 Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH.