Consumer Choice as the Best Way to Recenter the Mission of Competition Law

Abstract:     
This article will (1) define the consumer choice approach to competition law or antitrust law and show how it differs from other approaches; (2) discuss the types of situations where a consumer choice focus is likely to make a difference in enforcement outcomes, producing better results than the other paradigms; (3) show that another important advantage of using the consumer choice approach would be to nudge decisions in the right direction; and (4) offer a brief overview of implementation issues.

This is a chapter of a forthcoming ASCOLA book, and is a condensation and update of Neil W. Averitt & Robert H. Lande, 'Using The "Consumer Choice" Approach to Antitrust Law', Antitrust Law Vol. 74, 2007, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1121459

Number of Pages in PDF File: 19

Keywords: Antitrust, Competition Law, Consumer Protection Law, consumers, consumer welfare, Chicago school, post-Chicago school

JEL Classification: K19, K21, K39, L4, L49

working papers series