Collusive Practices Inside a Business Network: The Case of Information Exchange
Business networks are systems of business cooperation integrating several firms that have at the same time cooperation and competition relationships, what makes them a relevant phenomenon for Competition Law. This paper analyses whether some agreements between network members may infringe Art. 101.1 TFEU, taking as an example one of the most important features of business networks – the information exchanges inside them. To this aim, it delimits the different kinds information exchanges taking place in horizontal or vertical networks, identifies the most relevant cases for Competition Law, and proposes an adequate assessment methodology that takes into account the existence and features of the network. The paper therefore concludes that competition law rules cannot be automatically applied when the cooperating companies belong to a business network, and that an accurate competitive analysis in these cases has to consider also the existence, aims, interests, and organizational and functional needs of the network
Information Exchanges Under EU Competition Law
The determination of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of exchanging consumer financial information under EU competition law finds its roots in a traditionally controversial and grey area of competition law enforcement. In addition, the financial services sector has been historically protected from the logics and application of competition law, which only relatively recently has featured importantly in the competition policies and law enforcement of the EU and its competent authorities.
Object analysis in information exchange among competitors
In the last few years, the substantive assessment of information exchanges among competitors has become a hot subject of debate. Despite the well-known proand anti-competitive effects of information sharing, recent developments show an increasing trend of EU competition authorities, including the Commission itself, to assess certain information exchanges under the ‘object approach’. This view has officially been expressed by the Commission in its recently published horizontal cooperation Guidelines. This article analyses from an economic and a legal perspective whether it is appropriate to identify certain types of information exchanges as ‘restrictions by object’, which automatically violate article 101(1) TFEU.