Consumer Autonomy and Vertical Agreements

Johannes Persch examines vertical agreements restricting online sales under EU competition law. He analyses practices like total online bans, platform bans and other restrictions on online sales, their legal classification and economic evaluation and discusses whether consumer autonomy may be an additional pathway to understanding the treatment of such agreements under EU competition law. In this regard, he examines whether consumer autonomy can be a valid normative concern under EU competition law and how consumer autonomy, as a goal of competition law, can be operationalized in the context of vertical agreements.