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Information exchange as an anticompetitive agreement: Thin ice between good and bad information exchange
Maliniak, Richard ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Pítrová, Lenka (referee)
INFORMATION EXCHANGE AS AN ANTICOMPETITIVE AGREEMENT: THIN ICE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD INFORMATION EXCHANGE ABSTRACT: The information exchange between competitors is one of the most controversial horizontal practices in competition law. Indeed, any exchange may have positive effects on competition as well as purely anti-competitive effects. Knowing the exact boundaries of a permissible and prohibited information exchange is absolutely crucial for entrepreneurs, as a clearly defined approach by competition authorities largely determines their own business (e.g., data aggregators and financial traders) and potentially beneficial communication such as benchmarking or information exchange enabling entrepreneurs to make better decisions on prices, demand, investment, business strategies, marketing and research & development. It is therefore absolutely crucial that the balance between good and bad information exchange is set correctly. On the one hand, there is a risk of so-called falsie positive conclusions (type I error), when behaviour that actually contributes to effective competition is condemned by the authorities as illegal. On the other hand, the price that society would pay for ignoring anti-competitive business practices, i.e., for the so-called false negative conclusions (type II error), is no less...
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