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Antitrust Enforcement Against Platform Mfns, Jonathan Baker, Fiona M. Scott Morton Jan 2018

Antitrust Enforcement Against Platform Mfns, Jonathan Baker, Fiona M. Scott Morton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Antitrust enforcement against anticompetitive platform most favored nations (MFN) provisions (also termed pricing parity provisions) can help protect competition in online markets. An online platform imposes a platform MFN when it requires that providers using its platform not offer their products or services at a lower price on other platforms. These contractual provisions may be employed by online platforms offering hotel and transportation bookings, consumer goods, digital goods, and handmade craft products. They have been the subject of antitrust enforcement in Europe but have drawn only limited antitrust scrutiny in the U.S. Our paper explains why MFNs employed by online …

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The Competitive Consequences Of Most-Favored-Nation Provisions, Jonathan Baker, Judith A. Chevalier Jan 2013

The Competitive Consequences Of Most-Favored-Nation Provisions, Jonathan Baker, Judith A. Chevalier

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

"Most Favored Nation" contractual provisions have come under scrutiny in recent years by antitrust authorities in both the US and EU. MFNs are a type of vertical agreement between suppliers and buyers. The literature has recognized that there may be efficiency rationales for these arrangements but the literature has also recognized that these arrangements have anticompetitive potential. In this paper, we distill the economics literature on MFNs to explore both possibilities.

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Merger To Monopoly To Serve A Single Buyer: Comment, Jonathan Baker Jan 2008