Customer foreclosure – EU
Verrouillage de l’accès à la clientèle – EU
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COMPETITION • EUROPEAN LAW • MERGERS
Vertical mergers may result in customer foreclosure when they block competitors of the merged entity from gaining access to market opportunities e.g  a merger bringing together one of the two leading manufacturers in the market and a customer of the competing manufacturer with whom the latter achieves a substantial share of its sales.
Customer foreclosure may take various forms. It can result in the new entity adopting a preferential, exclusive, even speculative purchasing policy which allows the manufacturer to win contracts which it would not have obtained without the merger, in attempts to remove interoperability of its production platform with competing products or using its certification power as leverage for the sale of its own products. Where the merger enables the new entity to achieve economies of scale, customer foreclosure is likely to deter the entry of potential competitors on the upstream market, the attractiveness of which will be limited in terms of revenue. Foreclosure may raise competition concerns only if the concentration concerns a customer which has a substantial market power on the downstream market. Further, competition is not significantly impeded when competitors have a sufficiently large customer base.
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CONCURRENCE • DROIT EUROPÉEN • Concentrations
Les concentrations verticales peuvent entraîner un verrouillage de l'accès à la clientèle lorsqu'elles ferment l'accès des concurrents de la nouvelle entité aux débouchés. Il en va ainsi de la concentration qui réunit l'un des deux principaux fabricants du marché et un client du fabricant concurrent avec lequel ce dernier réalise une part substantielle de ses ventes.
Le verrouillage de la clientèle peut se manifester sous différentes formes. Il peut conduire la nouvelle entité à adopter une politique d'achat préférentielle, exclusive, voire spéculative, qui lui permet de remporter des marchés qu'elle n'aurait pas obtenus sans la concentration, à supprimer toute interopérabilité entre ses produits et les produits concurrents ou à utiliser son pouvoir de certification comme levier pour la vente de ses propres produits. Lorsque l'opération permet à la nouvelle entité de réaliser des économies d'échelle, elle est susceptible de dissuader l'entrée de concurrents potentiels sur le marché amont dont l'attrait en termes de recettes sera réduit. Le verrouillage ne peut susciter des préoccupations de concurrence que si la concentration concerne un client qui dispose d'un pouvoir de marché substantiel sur le marché aval. En outre, il ne peut y avoir d'atteinte significative à la concurrence lorsque les concurrents conservent une base de clientèle très large.
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