Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:34:00.448Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Testing the Neo-Brandeisian Vision

from Part II - The Case for Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2021

Alan J. Devlin
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

In one respect, neo-Brandeisians are outspoken. They have much to say in diagnosing contemporary antitrust. On their account, the pivot from structuralism to effects has introduced the unwelcome art of prediction into competition law – an inquiry that neither courts nor agencies can reliably make. Creating the illusion of precision, they argue, this approach ensures that some anticompetitive transactions pass muster. Meanwhile, an obsession with price in administering the “consumer welfare” standard leads enforcers to overlook digital platforms that use free or low-cost offerings to achieve frightening rates of growth. Dominant control over infrastructure that is systemically important to the economy results. Presumed efficiencies in vertical integration provide carte blanche for further consolidation. For all of these reasons, reformists insist, we face a concentration crisis today. That is their critique, and – in that respect at least – they are clear.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reforming Antitrust , pp. 174 - 226
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×