Economic, political and socio-cultural welfare in media merger control: An analysis of the Belgian and Dutch competition authorities’ reviews of media mergers

The premise of consumer welfare in competition law entails that National Competition Authorities (NCAs) weigh both economic and non-economic interests of consumers against those of producers. This contribution distinguishes between economic, socio-cultural and political welfare to evaluate whether NCAs examine a merger’s impact against the width of consumer interest. A claim analysis is conducted of the NCAs’ formal decisions on eight selected cases of proposed media mergers. The analysis shows that, in recent years, these NCAs pay attention to non-economic interests of consumers, but remain vague as to, first, what interests in particular are at stake; second, who the stakeholders are; and, third, how these interests are weighed. The results suggest potential to increase consumer welfare by safeguarding the media’s political and socio-cultural role in particular. To this end, first, the perspective of individuals as citizens must prevail; second, specific tests must review the impact of media mergers on political and socio-cultural welfare; and, third, NCAs and Media Regulatory Authorities (MRAs) must bundle strengths.