2015 Latin American Competition Forum

Discussions during the 13th meeting of the LACF focused on Groceries Sector and Competition Advocacy. See below all meeting materials. For more work on Latin America, see Competition Law and Policy in Latin America

DOWNLOAD THE 2015 PROGRAMME (pdf)

» AGENDA

» ORDEN DEL DíA

» PRESENTATIONS

» SUMMARY RECORD

SESSION I. STRUCTURAL ISSUES IN THE GROCERIES SECTOR: MERGERS AND REGULATORY ISSUES‌

The retail sector continues to be of high interest for competition officials.  The discussion focused on the technical nature of merger review in the groceries sector, that potentially raises concerns about the capacity of a competition authority to properly assess the effect of a merger that might affect tens or hundred of local markets in different ways. More information on the scope of the discussion can be found in the call for contributions for each session below.

View some of our previous discussions in relation to the topic:

• Buying Power of Multiproduct Retailers (1998)
• Vertical Restraints for On-line Sales (2013)
• Competition and Commodity Price Volatility (2012)
• Market Definition (2012)
• The Interface between Competition and Consumer Policies (2008)
• Resale Price Maintenance (2008)
• Monopsony and Buyer Power (2008)
• Resale Below Cost Laws and Regulations (2005)

Last year's discussion focused on mainstreaming competition policy. This year's discussion focused on the need of getting better metrics of the advocacy work in order to improve the mainstreaming of competition policy in the main government economic agenda.

View our previous discussions on the topic:
See related documentation from the 2014 discussion on Advocacy Mainstreaming
Promoting Compliance with Competition Law, 2011 (pdf)
Strategies for Competition Advocacy, 2010 Latin American Forum Discussion (full set of documents, pdf) 
Competition State Aids and Subsidies, 2010 Global Forum on Competition Discussion (full set of documents, pdf)

SESSION III. COMPETITION ISSUES IN THE GROCERIES SECTOR: FOCUS ON CONDUCT

This session focused on some potentially anticompetitive practices of the supermarkets sector. These may feature in merger analysis but more usually will be the subject of abuse of dominance (and similar), vertical agreements or cartel investigations or possibly a result of government regulation, such as through the use of codes of conduct.ents of the case.

FINAL SESSION. EVALUATION AND PROPOSALS FOR FUTURE WORK