[dataset] References to innovation in European Commission's merger decisions

The first stage of data collection was based on the selection of the relevant merger cases due to the type of economic activity they involved and the names of the Parties. As a result, we collected 36 decisions, of which 31 we identified as related to digital markets. Out of these decisions, the phrase ‘innovat’ – used to capture forms such as ‘innovative’ and ‘innovate’ – appears at least once in 18 cases. We identified 325 uses of the term, distributed unequally among the cases. The cases identified through this process were then subjected to the coding exercise. For the purpose of the coding exercise, we treated a paragraph as a coding unit. Thus, the number of coded units is not equal to the number of uses of the term, as there are paragraphs in which it is mentioned multiple times. The selection process was conducted in June 2025, with the coding exercise performed in July–August 2025. For the purpose of data analysis we followed, to a large extent, the code book used by Schrepel in his work A systematic content analysis of innovation in European competition law, 58 European Journal of Law and Economics (2024), 355. For more explanation, see the relevant publications.