Antitrust law and inequality - time for a paradigm change

The debate about antitrust and inequality reveals that increased antitrust enforcement and equality are not necessarily connected. It further reveals that there is a lack of evidence on antitrust enforcement’s impact on society, including on its ability to increase the pie for the world as a whole. Antitrust law is thus ripe for a paradigm shift if it is to play a serious role in combating abuse of power and the reproduction of concentration of wealth in the twenty-first century. Antitrust lawyers should articulate targeted resistance to particular hierarchical structures rather than pursue abstract goals of equality or competition and articulate new tools for addressing the reproduction of wealth and power in society. This requires the amendment of some of the assumptions of antitrust law, for example, the benevolent effect of low prices, the current understanding of power and the existing understanding of injury.

Antitrust Chronicle 2017, Fall 2017, Volume 1, Number 1