The European Union adoped a new guidelines related to the assessment of vertical mergers towards end of 2007. This guidelines suggests an effect-based and economic approach in analyzing vertical mergers. The vertical merger between Tom Tom and Tele Atlas, which are undertakings operating at different stages of the portable navigation devices market, is of particular importance as being the first case decided under the new guidelines. This paper aims to discuss the strong and weak parts of the European Commission's decision for this transaction in the light of economic theories.
Key words: Vertical merger, competition economics, effects-based approach, navigation device, input foreclosure. JEL Classification: L40, K21. Article Language: EnglishTurkish
|
