The Outcome Effect of European Competition Policy for the Netherlands

In this paper I describe the results of my research on the effects of European competition policy for the consumers in the Netherlands in terms of outcome. This paper discusses the various ways DG Competition, DoJ, FTC, NMa and OFT calculate outcome effects. I use the method of the NMa to calculate the effect of European cartel enforcement, merger control and antitrust policy for the cases which had an impact on the welfare of Dutch consumers. To estimate this effect I have used the cases of DG Competition between 2000 and 2009. My research shows that European competition enforcement resulted in a total outcome effect of almost € 900 mln for the Dutch consumer (with the calculation method of the NMa1). Using methods of other competition authorities the outcome effect is in the range of more than 1,4 billion euro to almost 4 billion euro. The combined average total outcome effect of competition policy in the Netherlands between 2000 and 2009 is more than 5,1 billion (outcome effect from cases of DG Competition and the NMa together, calculated with the methodology of the NMa).