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Title
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Economic, political and socio-cultural welfare in media merger control : an analysis of the Belgian and Dutch competition authorities reviews of media mergers
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Author
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Abstract
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| The premise of consumer welfare in competition law entails that National Competition Authorities (NCAs) weigh both economic and non-economic interests of consumers against those of producers. This contribution distinguishes between economic, socio-cultural and political welfare to evaluate whether NCAs examine a mergers impact against the width of consumer interest. A claim analysis is conducted of the NCAs formal decisions on eight selected cases of proposed media mergers. The analysis shows that, in recent years, these NCAs pay attention to non-economic interests of consumers, but remain vague as to, first, what interests in particular are at stake; second, who the stakeholders are; and, third, how these interests are weighed. The results suggest potential to increase consumer welfare by safeguarding the medias political and socio-cultural role in particular. To this end, first, the perspective of individuals as citizens must prevail; second, specific tests must review the impact of media mergers on political and socio-cultural welfare; and, third, NCAs and Media Regulatory Authorities (MRAs) must bundle strengths. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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Information economics and policy. - Amsterdam
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Publication
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Amsterdam
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2015
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ISSN
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0167-6245
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DOI
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10.1016/J.INFOECOPOL.2015.07.002
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Volume/pages
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32
(2015)
, p. 2-15
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ISI
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000362382100002
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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Full text (open access)
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Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
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