Report of the 11th Symposium on Trends in Retail Competition

The Report of the Eleventh Annual Symposium discussing Trends in Retail Competition is now available and can be viewed here.

The symposium focused on the nature of competition between branded and private label products and the relationship between retailers and their suppliers. A major focus was the level of choice and innovation in the grocery market, stimulated and provoked by an important quantitative study commission by the DG Competition. Recent competition authority investigations were discussed, along with approaches to market definition and the effects of such issues as trust and, separately, similarity of packaging on shopper behaviour and the working of the market. A panel discussion at the end of the programme allowed for further exploration of these themes and the recently-announced European Commission e-commerce sector inquiry.

The symposium was held in May 2015 and was hosted by the Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law in conjunction with the Centre for Competition Law and Policy and was sponsored by Bristows LLP.