Recent global disruptions have brought supply chain resilience into sharper focus for competition authorities. In a new article published in the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, experts Iain Boa and Will Carpenter explore how these developments are shaping merger control.
Events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions and cyberattacks have highlighted how shocks can quickly translate into shortages, higher prices and wider economic disruption.
Against this backdrop, regulators are increasingly considering how mergers affect the resilience of supply chains. While some transactions may reduce the number of suppliers and limit fallback options for customers, others can strengthen firms’ ability to withstand shocks through scale, investment and more secure access to inputs.
This creates a more complex picture for merger assessment. As our experts explain, the impact of a transaction on resilience depends on market-specific factors, including the nature of potential disruptions, the structure of supply chains and the availability of credible alternatives during periods of stress.
The article sets out a practical framework to help assess these issues, focusing on four key questions: what risks matter in each market, whether reduced resilience would harm consumers, how a merger affects firms’ robustness, and what it means for customer choice when disruption occurs.
Understanding these dynamics is becoming increasingly important as authorities seek to balance outcomes in normal conditions with the risks posed by rare but significant shocks.
Get in touch with our competition team to explore what this means in practice - contact hello@frontier-economics.com or call +44 (0) 20 7031 7000.
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Director
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22 April 2026