Can We Protect Competition without Protecting Consumers?

Citation

Andriychuk O (2009) Can We Protect Competition without Protecting Consumers?. Competition Law Review, 6 (1), pp. 77-87. http://www.clasf.org/CompLRev/downloads/Vol6Issue1.htm

Abstract
Competition belongs to one of the most important values of the European Union. However, competition is not an exclusive path to create welfare and generate efficiency. In this respect competition can be seen as a ‘luxury product' of market-oriented societies, which is not indispensable for achieving such values as industrial growth, market integration, social coherency, consumer welfare or innovations. Why then should competition be perceived as a separate economic value? What features does it contain which are so important for liberal democracy? How should competition be correlated with consumer welfare? These questions are central to this paper, which argues for conceptual separation of competition and consumer welfare and offers a methodology for the ‘unbundled' analysis of these societal values.

Keywords
competition as a matter of public choice; goals of antitrust, schools of competition

Notes
The accepted manuscript is available to members of SSRN at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1594697

Journal
Competition Law Review: Volume 6, Issue 1