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