Symposium on Buyer Power

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

In many supply chains, recent times have witnessed a fundamental shift in the locus of power held by participating institutions with increasing power being acquired by those institutions closest to consumers (i.e., buyer power). This shift has profound implications for competition policy and antitrust law. Because prior policy and law has largely assumed suppliers hold the balance of power, growing buyer power has the potential to fundamentally reshape thinking. Rather than monopolization as a cornerstone concern, buyer power leads one to contemplate concerns surrounding monopsony and disproportionate bargaining power. Other changes are also likely with the field only beginning to address these formally. AAI's multidisciplinary invitational symposium focuses on new thinking surrounding buyer power:

• How should buyer power be identified and characterized?
• Under what circumstances should the possession and exercise of buyer power be restrained by antitrust intervention?
• Does the antitrust community need to reevaluate its current approach to vertical relationships and conduct?

The AAI Symposium on buyer power, June 20, 2007, will include presentations by eminent legal, economic, and marketing experts will be followed by a two-hour facilitated discussion with papers being published by The Antitrust Bulletin.

Bert Foer                                  
American Antitrust Institute      
BFoer@antitrustinstitute.org      
Phone: (202) 276-6002               

Greg Gundlach
University of North Florida
GGundlach@antitrustinstitute.org
Phone: (904) 620-1341

PROGRAM

Welcome
Greg Gundlach, AAI Senior Fellow; Interim Chairperson, Department of Marketing & Logistics and Visiting Eminent Scholar, Coggin College of Business, University of North Florida

Overview: “Mr. Magoo Visits Wal-Mart”
Bert Foer, President, American Antitrust Institute

PERSPECTIVES FROM ECONOMICS
Defining Buyer Power
Zhiqi Chen, Professor, Department of Economics, Carleton University and Co-Editor, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy

The Economics of Buyer Power
Robert Taylor, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Auburn University

Horizontal Competition, Vertical Competition and Market Power
Robert Steiner, AAI Senior Fellow; Economist, Robert L. Steiner Consulting

PERSPECTIVES FROM BUSINESS THEORY
Buyer Power in the U.K. Groceries Market Paul W. Dobson, Professor of Competition Economics, The
Business School, Loughborough University, U.K.; AAI Advisory Board

A Marketing Perspective on Buyer Power
John R. Nevin, Grainger Wisconsin Distinguished Professor and Executive Director, Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management and Executive Director, Center for Brand and Product Management, University of Wisconsin

An Introduction to S-D Logic: A Relevant Framework for Antitrust Theory?
Robert Lusch, Lisle and Roslyn Payne Professor of Marketing and Department Head, Department of Marketing, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona

Kelli Frias-Gutierrez, Doctoral Candidate, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona

Luncheon
Introduction
Robert Skitol, Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP, AAI Director

Speaker: “Buyer Power in the Evolving Global Supply Chain”Barry C. Lynn, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation; Author of End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation

BUYER POWER IN ANTITRUST
Buyer Power Discrimination
Peter Carstensen, George H. Young-Bascom Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School; AAI Advisory Board

Buyer Power in Pickett v. Tyson
C. Robert Taylor, Alfa Eminent Scholar (Distinguished University Professor) in Agricultural Economics and Public Policy, College of Agriculture, Auburn University

What Happened in the Weyerhauser Case
Michael Haglund, Haglund Kelley Horngren Jones & Wilder, and Counsel to Ross-Simmons

The Weyerhaeuser Rule and Antitrust Policy
John Kirkwood, Associate Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law, AAI Advisory Board

Facilitated Discussion lead by Bert Foer and Greg Gundlach