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Bibliographic Citation
Peter Carstensen, The Goals of Competition Law: End v. Means, in Albert A. Foer: A Consumer Voice in the Antitrust Arena 43 (Nicolas Charbit & Sonia Ahmad eds., 2020).
Abstract
This paper is a contribution to the ongoing debate about the goals of competition law. There are three contending perspectives: maximizing some form of economic welfare, fairness or some related concept of the public interest, and the preservation and enhancement of the competitive process. Thi paper examines each of these three potential goals critically. One important distinction is that both economic welfare and fairness are basically end results, while protecting the competitive
process addresses the means by which markets can operate in ways that are economically and socially desirable. The thesis advanced here is that the process goal is the one that should be dominant in defining legal standards and rules, but the considerations of economic welfare and fairness can and should play subordinate roles in the ultimate resolution of specific applications of competition policy. On examination, none of the goals is clear and unambiguous. Hence, there is a need for further clarification and focus based on theoretical and empirical information. It is the contention here that a focus on process provides the preferable basis for
such an ongoing dialogue.
