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65 Antitrust Bull. 87 (2020)
Antitrust as Public Interest Law: Redistribution, Equity, and Social Justice

handle is hein.journals/antibull65 and id is 87 raw text is: Article The Antitrust Bulletin 2020, Vol. 65(l) 87-101 A ntitrust as Public Interest © TheoAuthor(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: Law: Redistribution, Equity, 7033pm;i DOID 10.1 177/0003603X 19898624 and Social Justice journals.sagepub.com/home/abx Dina I. Waked* Abstract This article proposes the use of antitrust law to reduce poverty and address inequality. It argues that the antitrust laws are sufficiently malleable to achieve such goals. The current focus of antitrust on the efficiency-only goals does not only lead to increasing inequality further but is also inconsistent with the history of antitrust. This history is presented through the lens of the public interest that emerges into the balance between private property and competition policy. Tracing the public interest at different historical moments, we get to see how it has been broad enough to encompass social welfare concerns. Over time, the public interest concern of antitrust was narrowed to exclusively cover consumer welfare and its allocative efficiency. Once we frame antitrust as public interest law, in its broadest sense, we are empowered to use it to address inequality. A proposal to do so is exposed in this article. Keywords antitrust, public interest, history, social welfare, consumer trust I. Introduction Antitrust laws are sufficiently malleable to achieve goals far beyond the narrow efficiency-based goals that have dominated antitrust over the past 60 years.1 Using antitrust to achieve other than efficiency- based goals has often been advocated for development purposes, especially for countries in the Global South.2 Although developing countries merit a specially tailored antitrust policy that addresses their special needs of development and poverty eradication, the rise of global inequality globalizes the special status of antitrust in developing countries. Over the past decades, inequality has continued to rise, and even the economies that saw high levels of growth witnessed rampant income disparity as 1. See Dina I. Waked, Antitrust Goals in Developing Countries: Policy Alternatives and Normative Choices, 38 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 945 (2015) (for an overview of possible goals to guide antitrust enforcement and competition policy). 2. Id. *Sciences Po Law School, Paris, France Corresponding Author: Dina I. Waked, Associate Professor, Sciences Po Law School, Paris 75007, France. Email: dina.waked@sciencespo.fr

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