Fishy Business: Multijurisdictional Treatment of a Horizontal Merger in Salmon Farming

"The recent decentralisation of EU competition policy triggered a discussion of the possibility that competition authorities in the various Member States might approach EU competition rules differently. Before 2003, the European Commission was thought to have a “natural monopoly” in deciding antitrust cases with a community dimension. Today, “after a legal and cultural revolution", the Commission shares its powers with competition authorities and courts in the Member States. This revolution has created a challenge to the co-ordination of enforcement of competition policy across the EU."

"The article is organised as follows. The industry and the merger are introduced in Section B followed by the definition of markets in Section C. Section D then discusses quantity-based short-term competition providing price effects based on the Cournot model. Section E turns to the contentious assessment of long-term competition, ease of entry and of expansion. Section F presents the political-economic arguments and concludes."