Modernizing the Vertical Merger Guidelines

By Steven C. Salop

In this short article, I highlight some key issues in formulating revised guidelines and legal standards for vertical mergers that several co-authors and I have analyzed in recent articles. These are distilled into five principles. These principles flow from a recognition that the harms and benefits from horizontal and vertical mergers in oligopoly markets are similar, that cognizable vertical merger efficiencies are not inevitable, and that the Section 7 incipiency standard