News & insights

Modern telecoms and communications markets are competitive, dynamic and innovative, resulting in large benefits for consumers and society. As in all competitive sectors, day-to-day commercial operations often lead to new entry, service improvements, mergers, acquisitions, and agreements between firms, all facilitating investment and product developments. However, normal commercial activities occasionally give rise to competition concerns, especially when larger players are involved.

To safeguard the effectiveness of competition, many countries have rules designed to promote healthy competition. Laws often ban anticompetitive agreements between firms, such as agreements to fix prices or to carve up markets. In Australia, the UK, the EU and many other countries, it is also illegal for businesses to abuse or misuse a dominant market position. In many countries, mergers between businesses can also be prevented if they substantially lessen competition, and in some countries like the UK, uncompetitive markets can be investigated through market studies.

Economic analysis and appraisal of market evidence undertaken by CEPA are critical in helping clients navigate the evolving competition law landscape. Understanding how agreements and mergers impact competition, how pricing strategies affect markets, how markets are defined, are some areas in which we add value.

In our briefing note, we look at some issues in competition economics and law and how these affect some telecoms and related markets. We motivate the discussion with reference to a number of recent and ongoing cases, and touch on developments involving platform businesses and gateways.