The Commission sought to explore the antitrust impact of B2B sites, particularly those formed as joint purchasing and selling operations in a single industry. It invited industry representatives, antitrust lawyers, economists and regulators to present views on the question. At the same time, the Commission was reviewing the formation of a B2B marketing and purchasing site formed by the big three domestic automobile producers. The report provides a helpful look into the minds of the regulators, who are trying to determine what possible anticompetitive impact might result from the activities of collaborative B2B ventures. This article focuses on the section of the FTC report that recounts the Commission's antitrust analysis of B2B electronic marketplaces.
Quotations are from that section.
The antitrust analysis in the FTC report is addressed to the buying and selling of goods though electronic marketplaces. It also examines competition among B2B marketplaces. In the buying and selling of goods, it considers the problems of information sharing, monopsony and exclusion. Sharing One question presented by B2B selling and buying collaboratives is whether they provide the mechanism for information swaps, or at least make the swaps more possible. The FTC workshop participants noted that, in a concentrated market, sellers could agree to give access to B2B price data about prices that rivals are currently charging, thus providing a mechanism for price fixing.