Understanding Category Captain Power: Insights for Competition Policy and Antitrust Law

Category management is a common business practice in both the U.S. and abroad wherein the products of a retail establishment are divided into categories and managed as a free-standing business. Found in both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retailing, the most common approach involves outsourcing decisions to a single, often the largest or leading, supplier or manufacturer (i.e. the category captain) in a category. Despite helping to manage a retail category, given their capacity to impact the pe