International Consumer Advocacy for Competition Policy: Learning from the AAI Model

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Bert Foer has a forthcoming article in the Boletin LatinoAmericano de Competencia on International Consumer Advocacy for Competition Policy: Learning from the AAI Model.

ABSTRACT:  In June, 2008, the American Antitrust Institute, known around the world as “AAI,”,celebrated its tenth anniversary as a not-for-profit independent education, research, and advocacy organization. The booklet we created for this event summarizes our decade of experience as a leading advocate of post-Chicago, activist antitrust policy. For those who might be contemplating the creation of a pro-consumer Non-Governmental Organization (“NGO”) in the rapidly developing field of competition policy, please review this booklet on our homepage, www.antitrustinstitute.org. We do not claim that the AAI model is appropriate in all circumstances, but something similar to AAI, customized to local needs, would seem beneficial in every nation that has adopted a competition policy. In this paper, we will describe the salient features of AAI, suggest why similar organizations are needed, comment on some lessons we have learned that might be useful to competition NGO’s, and offer our assistance to NGO’s that are moving in a comparable direction.