Private Label Mergers: Brattle Principal Loren Smith Explores Competitive Implications in Antitrust Law Journal Article
Published in the Antitrust Law Journal
Brattle Principal Loren Smith has coauthored an Antitrust Law Journal article titled “The Competitive Implications of Private Label Mergers,” exploring the relevant competitive effects and how they should be evaluated.
Private label manufacturers not only compete with one another other to become a retailer’s private label supplier, but they also must compete against branded items on the retail shelf, meaning that – when negotiating wholesale prices with retailers – the manufacturers must consider both of these distinct but entwined stages of competition.
The article presents how existing methods for assessing the likely competitive effects of horizontal mergers can be applied to the private label merger context, considering both stages at which private label products compete.
