Private Labels, Brands and Competition Policy The Changing Landscape of Retail Competition

The growing use of private labels in recent years has affected significantly the landscape of retail competition, with major retailers no longer being confined to their traditional role as purchasers and distributors of branded goods. By selling their own-label products within their outlets they are competing with their upstream brand suppliers for sales and shelf space. This unique relationship, and the continued strengthening of private labels, raises important questions as to their pro-competitive effects and possible negative effects. This book provides an in-depth review of the range of competitive and intellectual property issues raised in connection with private brands in Europe and the US. It examines the development of private labels and their impact on retail competition, then moves on to focus on policy and question the adequacy of current economic and legal analysis in light of the characteristics of own-label competition, and finally it presents a thorough evaluation of the legal issues in the field, including chapters on horizontal and vertical effects, dominance, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, copycat packaging and consumer welfare. The book contains a collection of essays reflecting the debate on the impact of private labels upon competition, investment and innovation in the retail sector. The ideas and arguments underlying the articles have been developed through a series of seminars held in the Oxford Centre for Competition Law and Policy over the last three years. Participants in these seminars have included competition officials, law academics, practitioners and representatives from industry.

1 - Private labels - what drives them forward
2 - The business model for manufacturers' brands
3 - Bargaining between retailers and their suppliers
4 - Market power in consumer goods industries
5 - Private labels and branded goods: Consumers' "horrors" and "heroes"
6 - Private Labels and Article 82 EC
7 - Private labels, dual distribution and vertical restraints: An analysis of the competitive effects
8 - The vertical/horizontal dichotomy in competition law: some reflections with regard to dual distribution and private labels
9 - Retailer and private labels: asymmetry of information, in-store competition and the control of shelf space
10 - Misleading packaging, copycats and look-alikes: an unfair commercial practice?
11 - Private labels, product variety, and price competition - lessons from the German grocery sector
12 - Advertising, promotional campaigns and private labels
13 - Retail consolidation: the implications of mergers and buying alliances
14 - Retail competition - the use of ex-ante and ex-post remedies
15 - United States competition law policy - the private label experience
16 - The 'consumer welfare' standard as a form of substantive protection for consumers under European competition law
17 - Welfare objective and enforcement standard in competition law

Ariel Ezrachi is the Director of The University of Oxford Centre for Competition law and Policy; Slaughter and May Lecturer in Competition Law, Oxford University; and Fellow, Pembroke College, Oxford. Ulf Bernitz is Professor of European Law at Stockholm University; and Director of The Wallenberg Foundation Oxford/Stockholm Association in European Law, Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford.