New Technologies and Obsolete Analyses: Internet Search and the Analysis of Market Definition
American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, The Economics Committee Newsletter, Winter 2017
An Analysis Group team comprising Principal Almudena Arcelus, Managing Principal Emily Cotton, Vice President Shannon Seitz, Consultant Lucia Antras, and Associate Rachael Tibolt published “New Technologies and Obsolete Analyses: Internet Search and the Analysis of Market Definition” in the Winter 2017 edition of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law Economics Committee Newsletter. The article examines the applicability of market definition analysis to Internet-based activities in the context of anticompetitive conduct. The current lack of a common framework to analyze competition in Internet search has already created issues in litigation, specifically in the antitrust investigations into Google's vertical search practices in the United States (US) and European Union (EU). The authors assess the extent to which existing economic tools for the analysis of market definition can be applied to Internet search, and how traditional notions of market definition and why traditional economic analyses of market definition may be ill-suited to the analyses of Internet search.