Assessing Unilateral Effects in Practice: Lessons from GE/Instrumentarium

This Brief analyses the Commission’s decision to clear GE’s acquisition of Instrumentarium, the medical equipment supplier, subject to undertakings. RBB acted as economic experts to GE on this merger. The case is interesting on a number of levels. It is the first EC Merger Regulation decision to contain a detailed and explicit analysis of unilateral effects, reflecting the framework laid down in the EC’s horizontal merger guidelines. The decision also reveals the very substantial influence that the Chief Economist’s office is having on the greater use of quantitative methods in merger analysis.