Market Definition Analysis in Latin America with Applications to Internet-Based Industries

There has been a surge of recent antitrust cases involving Internet-based industries around the world, including in Latin America. These types of industries present special challenges for authorities, as their analysis requires an understanding of the fast-paced, innovative, and multi-sided nature of these businesses. In this paper we present methods and techniques for market definition and power analysis which emphasize the need to focus on competitive constraints rather than structural or functional characteristics of products and services — a particularly relevant issue in Internet-based industries. We next explore whether the legal frameworks of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico can accommodate this type of analyses. Our focus then shifts to how competition takes place in Internet-based industries; we describe how firms vie for consumer attention and provide this attention to advertisers and developers using the concept of “attention rivalry”. Taking this theoretical back-ground into account we pose the question of whether the three largest Latin American economies have the tools, legal ability and expertise to undertake these types of complex analyses. We use cases to illustrate where they have done so, and review the most relevant work they have undertaken in Internet-based industries since 2000. In our view, nothing prevents competition agencies in these countries from conducting the correct economic analyses.