The Tyranny of Market Shares: Incorporating Survey-Based Evidence into Merger Analysis
Corporate Disputes, Jul-Sep 2018
In the article “The Tyranny of Market Shares: Incorporating Survey-Based Evidence into Merger Analysis,” published in Corporate Disputes, Managing Principals Rebecca Kirk Fair and Emily Cotton and Principal Rene Befurt explore the relevance of surveys in merger reviews. In some instances, traditional sources for share measures used by regulators, such as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) or the EC's Directorate-General for Competition (DG Comp), may reflect overly broad or overly narrow market definitions, or may simply be a poor reflection of the current extent of competition.
In their article, the authors discuss expanding the view of competition by looking beyond traditionally tracked market shares and focusing on consumers' and businesses' underlying purchasing processes. They share insights on how consumer surveys can be used to better understand purchase decisions, and so lead to a deeper understanding of post-merger market dynamics.