Supply chain resilience in merger assessments

Key Points Recent major disruptions to supply chains, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather events and ransom-ware attacks, have pushed supply chain resilience to the front of policy debates in anti-trust. Competition authorities are increasingly considering how to incorporate such concerns within their analysis of mergers. Mergers, both horizontal and non-horizontal, can increase or reduce supply chain resilience as they can either increase or reduce the number of credible alternative options that exist for customers at times of market stress. For this reason merger assessments should consider resilience issues within a wholistic framework that places the likely harm to consumers at its heart.