Competition Law Through an Ordoliberal Lens

Abstract

Ordoliberalism is a German school of economic thought that advocates regulating the free market economic based on a set of state imposed rules guaranteed by the economic constitution to impose a competitive order in society. It proposes an alternative method to pure laissez-faire and state planned economy for the better regulation of the market economy by having as goals the protection of the competitive process and individual freedom. In this article I submit that ordoliberalism, an indigenous European competition policy, is an adequate economic and analytical tool to base the practice and decision making of competition law a. My aim is twofold: contribute to the discussion on what ordoliberalism is in general and in particular concerning competition policy, and offer a new perspective on an ordoliberal-oriented competition policy.