10 Entry and Potential Competition

10.01 Entry analysis constitutes an important element of any merger assessment, since a company is not likely to raise prices post-merger (or adopt other types of anticompetitive conduct) if this would trigger sufficient entry in the market which would reduce prices back to pre-merger levels. Usually, a merger in a particular industry cannot permanently reduce competition if new firms can easily enter the industry. Therefore, to prove that mergers are harmful, antitrust authorities must usually, at the very least, demonstrate the presence of entry barriers. In...