Posted by Social Science Research Network
Regional Competition Center for Latin America: Antitrust Guidelines for Exchanges of Information Among Competitors
By Rosa M. Abrantes-Metz (Global Economics Group)
There are a variety of legitimate reasons why competitors may need or simply wish to collaborate. Firms may collaborate in order to finance innovation and improve the quality or variety of their existing products, to develop new and superior products, to expand to new markets, or to improve efficiency and lower costs. The benefits to consumers from these collaborations can be significant, in particular if they are complementary across the parties. But such benefits notwithstanding, these agreements may also lead to competitive harm.
The new proposed “Regional Competition Center for Latin America: Antitrust Guidelines for Horizontal Collaborations Among Competitors,” (“Guidelines”), provide general recommendations on how Antitrust Agencies (“Agencies”) in the respective countries may wish to analyze collaborations among competitors under their respective Antitrust Laws. The Guidelines follow best international practices particularly those by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as those by the European Commission. They advise on a possible analytical framework for businesses to assess the likelihood of an antitrust challenge to a particular collaboration among competitors.
The proposed framework is primarily based on legal and economic criteria for analyzing an agreement and the context in which it is established, and it is in no way binding on any of the Agencies. By providing guidance on a general framework that the various jurisdictions may consider in their analyses of these collaborations, these Guidelines hope to contribute to higher transparency and predictability of antitrust assessment of collaborations among competitors. Hence, this report hopes to encourage procompetitive collaborations while deterring anticompetitive ones.
