11 June 2024  Paris

Economic moats generally refer to key competitive advantages that allow a company to protect its core monopoly from rivals on a long-term basis. Conversely, entrenchment focuses on strategic actions adopted by a dominant firm to maintain its competitive advantages. Both may contribute to maintaining and increasing a firm’s market power. While these terms may overlap, they may be subject to different interpretations in the context of competition law.

In June 2024, the OECD will hold a roundtable on Monopolisation, Moat building and Entrenchment Strategies to discuss economic moats and entrenchment, their relationship with market power, and the importance of economic moats and entrenchment tactics to modern monopolisation strategies with a focus on potential challenges identified in the current legal framework.

The discussion will also explore:

• The concept of economic moat and entrenchment and their relationship with market power.
• Economic moats and strategic entrenchment with respect to unilateral conduct.
• Potential challenges for competition authorities when assessing economic moats and entrenchment.
• Possible solutions to address the potential challenges under existing legal frameworks.

This page contains all related information.

See the full list of best practice roundtables on competition.

Background Note

Contributions from delegations

Abuse of dominance and monopolisation (1996)

Abuse of dominance in digital markets (2020)

Start-ups, killer acquisitions and merger control (2020)

Market Power in the Digital Economy and Competition Policy (2022)

Theories of harm in digital mergers (2023)

OECD best practice roundtables on competition