Naked Slotting Fees for Vertical Control of Multi-Product Retail Markets

Abstract

Slotting fees—fixed charges paid by food manufacturers to retailers for access to the retail market—are both increasingly common and increasingly controversial. This note shows how imperfectly competitive retailers and a monopolistic supplier of one good can use "naked" slotting fees—charges imposed on competitive suppliers of other goods—to achieve a vertically integrated multi-good monopoly.