Antitrust goals and decision rules
Abstract
This article develops a decision-theoretic analysis demonstrating why the goals of a legal regime are distinct from the decision rules created to achieve such goals and argues that this distinction is an essential yet overlooked dimension in the existing debates on the objectives of antitrust policy. The article then applies this framework to address one of the most controversial questions in this literature: whether antitrust should promote consumer welfare or preserve the competitive process itself. It argues that consumer welfare is a goal but not necessarily a decision rule and that, in contrast, the preservation of the competitive process is not a goal and can only serve as a proxy for other normative objectives.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Merger and Competition Analysis
Publication details
- Journal / source
- University of Toronto Law Journal
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
- Volume
- 76
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 106–142
- Publication date
- 1 April 2026
- Language
- EN