Assessment of the vertical merger guidelines and recommendations for the VMGs commentary
Click here to read the full article onlineThis article provides an assessment of the key changes in the final DOJ-FTC Vertical Merger Guidelines (VMGs) from the January 2020 Draft Guidelines and offers recommendations for the VMGs Commentary—namely, additional details on how the Agencies will determine the industry-wide average retail price when weighing the upward price pressure created by raising rivals’ costs (RRC) and the downward price pressure created by the elimination of double marginalization (EDM). We also recommend guidance on remedies. These are important because one of the most important roles of guidelines is to provide private parties with the ability to evaluate and price risk ex-ante.