In Law360, Analysis Group Authors Discussed Gender Considerations in Competition Policy
October 10, 2023
Following the September 2023 release of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Gender Inclusive Competition Toolkit, Analysis Group Managing Principals Jee-Yeon Lehmann and Lisa Pinheiro and Vice President Marissa Ginn discussed gender considerations in competition policy in an article published in Law360. In the article, “OECD Gender Inclusive Toolkit May Inform Competition Policy,” the authors provided an overview of the OECD’s Toolkit, with a specific focus on elements of the Toolkit that drew from their research conducted with Vice President Anne Catherine Faye.
The authors summarized the practical framework for how gender-based considerations could be investigated in the early stages of market definition analysis and the evaluation of competitive effects, including how one might bring a gender lens to data collection efforts to enable such considerations where they may be relevant. The authors then provided an illustrative example of how gender could be considered in the early analysis of a merger using publicly available data from a large online retailer.
The authors concluded by noting that, regardless of whether gender should be considered in the context of competition policy, “the desire for completeness and thoroughness [of related analyses] should be balanced with considerations of efficiency and an understanding of the burdens to the relevant parties, particularly in light of competition authorities' resource constraints.”