Category management practices aim at improving the business performance of
retailers by focusing on delivering consumer value. Retailers often rely on the expertise of a leading manufacturer for retail category management, a form of retailer-supplier collaboration often referred to as a category adviser arrangement.
The goal of our research is to investigate the antitrust issues that may arise as a result of the category adviser arrangements. We show that there are cases where the category advisor arrangements deliver bene¯ts to the category adviser, the retailer and the consumers, however, these bene¯ts come at the expense of manufacturers other than the category adviser. On the other hand, there are also cases where consumer surplus decreases under the category adviser arrangement. We conclude that category adviser arrangements should be treated with care and should be better understood in order to deliver bene¯ts to the category advisers, retailers and consumers.