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

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Robert H. Lande, University of Baltimore - School of Law advocates 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