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.

Featured Posts

Search Posts

Op-Eds

Schumer’s Way

Senator Schumer is on a roll. After coasting to an easy and well funded re-election in 2004, the senior senator from New York is…

Antitrust

Op-Eds

Volatile Gases

The European emissions trading scheme (ETS) was launched with great fanfare last year. The idea was to require certain energy-intensive industries to have a…

Antitrust

Products

Animal Rights, Human Wrongs

Animal rights extremists—whom the FBI has labeled America’s biggest domestic terrorism threat—have encountered a number of serious reverses recently. These reverses are a great victory…

Antitrust

Op-Eds

Sunset the FCC

Reforming telecommunications law is a favored subject in the halls of Congress this year. Hot issues include streamlining video franchising and addressing the "net…

Antitrust

Op-Eds

Unholy Alliance

States are embroiled in a nasty squabble with their business partner of seven years: Big Tobacco. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”…

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