The thesis presents a comprehensive and cross-sectional discussion of buyer power to determine the legal regulation of buyer conducts under EU competition law. It focuses on four main research areas: understanding buyer power; analysing the legal treatment given to the exertion of anticompetitive buyer power under EU competition law; exploring theories of harm applicable to buyer power abuse, and ascertaining the welfare standard employed for buyer power cases.

In this book, Dr Herrera Anchustegui embarks 011 an ordoliberal and economically informed investigation of the treatment of buyer power in EU competition law with the aim of gaining a holistic view of both the concept and the policy interventions that emerge from past practice across ali relevant areas of EU competition law: i.e. anticompetitive behaviour, abuse of dorninance and rnerger control. The reader that follows him in this less than easy journey will be richly rewarded. The research in this book covers a gap in the literature that probably was not perceived as such because ofthe long shadow ofthe 'mirror image' mantra and the impression that buyer power issues were, by and large, a peculiar challenge of the supermarkets and agricultura! sectors. Beyond those, and possibly one or two examples from regulated industries, even the most knowledgeable scholars and practitioners would need to rack their brains to recall contexts or cases where the competition law analysis rested on theo­ries of harm built upon the exercise of buying power. They would probably also be surprised to read that Dr Herrera Anchustegui does not consider most of these cases to raise a proper competition law issue, and would (in keeping with his ordoliberal approach) rather redirect them to other areas of regulation of economic activity of a contractual nature. Therefore, this book offers the specialists an opportunity to reas­sess the received wisdom on the treatment ofbuyer power under EU competition law. lt also otfers readers approaching the topic for the first time an authoritative guide to navigale a difficult and, until now relatively untrodden territory.

The author compares the treatment of such conduct under selected EU Member States and US antitrust law, and contrasts the outcomes with the EU competition law solutions to present a contribution that is novel and valuable due to its approach, depth and scope.