In the US, antitrust policy is supposed to benefit consumers. It does not work that way in practice. Companies game antitrust for their own benefit, competing in court rather than the market. Antitrust regulators are often partisan and ideological. Many progressive officials think big is automatically bad, even in cases where consumers benefit from lower prices or better products. Many conservatives favor using antitrust as another front in the culture wars, all but ignoring competition.

Consumers get forgotten in all the politics. The best way to protect consumers is to protect an open, competitive market process, in which companies succeed or fail based not on their political connections or ideological correctness, but on how well they serve consumers.

Antitrust regulation’s problems are structural and incurable. The Competitive Enterprise Institutes advocates abolishing antitrust law, removing remaining government monopolies, and preventing the creation of new ones.

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Open Federalism

The businessman puts the cash in an envelope. He leaves it on the agreed upon restaurant table. Another man, a government bureaucrat, walks over…

Antitrust

Op-Eds

A Boon for U.S. Consumers

Although Wal-Mart has been America's largest retailer since 1990, the company has only recently begun expanding into California, and the reaction from many quarters has…

Antitrust

Staff & Scholars

Richard Morrison

Senior Fellow

  • Antitrust
  • Business and Government
  • Capitalism and Free Enterprise

Iain Murray

Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow

  • Banking and Finance
  • Trade and International

Clyde Wayne Crews

Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies

  • Business and Government
  • Consumer Freedom
  • Deregulation

Ryan Young

Senior Economist

  • Antitrust
  • Business and Government
  • Regulatory Reform

Jessica Melugin

Director of the Center for Technology & Innovation

  • Antitrust
  • Innovation
  • Media, Speech and Internet Freedoms

Alex Reinauer

Research Fellow

  • Antitrust
  • Innovation
  • Tech and Telecom