Die Theorie mehrseitiger Marktplätze in der US-amerikanischen und deutschen Zusammenschlusskontrolle: Eine empirische Untersuchung für den Mediensektor

The aim of this article is to examine the practical relevance of current media-theoretical findings (especially the two-sided-markets-theory (TMT)) in the merger control of the US and German antitrust authorities. All merger cases in the media sector reported in the investigation period from 1999 to July 2016 were included in the analysis. In the same way, all notifiable merger projects from 1999 to 2014 in Germany were examined. In summary, for the definition of the market and the prognosis of the risk of monopoly, it can be shown that the TMT has so far been insufficiently involved in the examination procedure of the antitrust authorities. While the FTC and DoJ have largely not taken TMT into account so far, this has not been done systematically in Germany. In 83.33 % of the cases audited since 2008, the special features of media markets in Germany were accordingly not recognized at all or only sporadically. This can lead to wrong decisions from a theoretical point of view. In particular, there is a risk of overestimating the negative welfare effects while at the same time underestimating possible efficiency gains.