The Law and Economics of Information Sharing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

"The European Commission’s revised draft horizontal guidelines have provided some very helpful clarification regarding the delineation of object and effect, and how one should assess the effects of information sharing. This paper seeks to build on the work done in the guidelines in several ways. First, it provides an economic framework for the legal concepts of “object” and “effect” infringements. Second, it provides a wider view, drawing on examples from consumer policy, of why information sharing may be beneficial. Third, it looks at the main economic theories of harm from information sharing, and seeks to clarify why the legal approach to reductions in uncertainty in markets is different from the economic approach. The final section seeks to delineate clearly the types of information sharing that should fall within the object and effect categories and suggests a possible public/private distinction for the types of “grey” information sharing that are on the boundaries."