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The European Commission (EC) introduced a more technical, but simplified, method for setting punitive fines for convicted cartel members in its 2006 Guidelines. This method was meant to offer more clarity and consistency in the setting of fines in particular, and achieve greater deterrent effect in general. This paper examines these objectives of the Guidelines through simulating the resulting fines under the Guidelines under various specifications, and comparing them with standard optimality benchmarks in the literature. To this end, two oligopolistic models are employed for simulating the competitive and collusive outcomes, as well as the parameters relevant to the method in the Guidelines. In addition, the EC’s actual cartel fines data in 2007-2019 are assessed against the optimality benchmarks. The results demonstrate consistency in the Guidelines in recuperating the illicit benefits of cartel members, and in achieving a deterrent effect according to only some benchmarks. Moreover, an empirical analysis of the EC’s decision reveals deviations from the method embedded in the Guidelines, as well as limited variability in the resulting fine rates.

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Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) platforms have rapidly installed themselves as household names in homes around the world. This thesis analyses the impacts of SVOD on the supply and demand for TV and TV media by focusing on how SVOD affects TV viewing times, TV advertising revenues, TV media production volumes and TV channel volumes. In order to study the overarching research question through these sub-questions, Difference-in-Differences (DID) and Difference-in-Difference-in-Differences (DDD) econometric settings are applied using country level secondary data. Empirical results point towards SVOD having contrary effects on TV time use by age group with positive impacts on ‘older’ age groups and a negative impact on ‘younger’ age groups. Contrary to expectations, the empirics found SVOD positively affects TV advertising revenues and negatively affects TV media production volumes. These results could be due to SVOD’s lagged effects on TV and TV media that increase over time as SVOD platforms become well established and increase their subscription numbers. Further, empirical results suggest SVOD negatively impacts the volume of TV channels. As such, results suggest that SVOD affects the demand and supply dynamics for TV and TV media. Traditional TV networks, however, continue to maintain a key position in the TV media space.