Exploring Aspects of the State of Competition in the EU

There is growing evidence that over the past few decades competition across markets in the EU may have weakened: industry concentration and markups appear to have increased, while the gap between market leaders and followers seems to have widened and business dynamism seems to have declined.

Against this background, a consortium comprising Lear, E.CA Economics, Fideres, Prometeia, the University of East Anglia and Verian, and led by Lear, has been appointed by the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission to provide factual evidence on four aspects of the state of competition in the EU:

• the relationship between price and market concentration in key sectors of economic activity;
• an analysis of the evolution of ‘Global Superstars’, i.e. the most profitable of the world’s largest firms;
• the interplay between competition in domestic markets within the EU and export competitiveness;
• the role that effective competition plays in determining investment, employment, productivity and GDP

The session will provide an overview of the main findings of the report, which will be published in the coming months.