The strong concentration of market power in the digital economy has plunged antitrust law into a crisis. The large number of mergers and acquisitions by incumbent companies raise a fundamental question: Are EU merger control rules sufficient to adequately protect competition in the digital economy?
The author approaches this question by examining mergers in the software industry. Theresa Oehm analyzes whether the thresholds laid down in the EU Merger Regulation need to be adjusted in order to control the acquisition of companies with rapidly growing numbers of users and considerable competitive potential. She also examines whether traditional antitrust and industrial economic instruments, which are based on price-oriented competition concepts, are still adequate to assess mergers in dynamic markets.