The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission’s “Vertical Merger Guidelines” emphasize the positive effects of vertical integration. And while vertical mergers may often be less problematic than horizontal mergers, they can still present issues. In “The Possibility of Social-Surplus-Reducing Vertical Mergers,” Partner Leslie Marx and her co-author discuss and explain scenarios in which a vertical merger can reduce social surplus, and they distill lessons from their examples.
Leslie M. Marx and Simon Loertscher
CPI Antitrust Chronicle
October 2020