Publications in: Abuse of dominance

A Guide to Privatisation – Best Practices and Procedures

Published:16 February, 2023

Many countries have privatised some or all of their State-Owned Enterprises in order to improve the efficiency of their economies and raise revenues for the government. Some of the privatisation experiences have been more successful than others and a wealth of knowledge on what works in a privatisation has been accumulated over the last 40 […]

Consumer Behavioural Biases in Competition

Published: May, 2011

Office of Fair Trading, May 4, 2011.

Consumer Behavioural Biases in Competition

Published: May, 2011

Consumer behavioural biases imply that consumers may not behave in the fully rational way that many economic models assume. This study assesses what impact behavioural biases can have on competition, including, how competition and pricing practices may change when consumers are biased; if lowering barriers to entry can reduce inefficiencies that arise from consumer behavioural […]

Consumer Contracts

Published: February, 2011

The OFT has published the market study on problems consumers have with contracts. To inform the market study London Economics in association with YouGov completed a behavioural survey of consumers combined with an economic experiment to investigate the features of contracts that cause most problems for consumers.

The Impact of Price Frames on Consumer Decision Making

Published: May, 2010

London Economics was comissioned by the Office of Fair Trading to undertake a behavioural economics study into how different price frames may impact upon consumer behaviour. The study uses experimental economics to test if consumers incur behavioural biases under five common pricing practices used by firms, including drip pricing and “3 for 2” offers. The […]

Exclusive Contracts: Theory and Practice

Published: May, 2008

Exclusive contracts between two parties may be of concern for competition policy as they can be used to restrict the extent of competition in markets. In this note we briefly review the economic literature on the various effects of exclusive contracts and also illustrate with a real-world example how the relevant theory can be applied […]

Increasing Early Settlement Charges for Personal Loans by OTP-Bank Hungary – Abuse of Dominant Position or a Rational Business Response to a Demand Shock

Published: November, 2007

5th Annual Conference of the Association of Competition Economists (ACE), Toulouse, November 2007.

The EU Car Market Under the New BER

Published: July, 2006

This Brief summarises our report for DG Competition and reviews market developments in automotive retailing and after-sales sectors following the entry into force of the Regulation No. 1400/2002 (the Block Exemption Regulation or, simply BER), the new EC regulation covering distribution and after sales services of new motor vehicles in the EU.

Developments in Car Retailing and After-sales Markets Under Regulation 1400/2002

Published: June, 2006

This report reviews market developments in automotive retailing and after-sales sectors following the entry into force of the Regulation No. 1400/2002 (the Block Exemption Regulation or, simply BER), the new EC regulation covering distribution and after sales services of new motor vehicles in the EU. The report focuses on the competition implications of the new […]

Overview of EU25 Securities Trading, Clearing, Central Counterparties, and Securities Settlement

Published: February, 2004

The report for the European Commission – DG Competition provides a pan-European overview of trading, clearing and central counterparties, settlement, and custody, of equity, corporate and government bonds, and the related infrastructures (exchanges, clearing institutions and central counterparties, central securities depositories and international central securities depositories at primary level and international central securities depositories and […]