This article discusses the social and economic facets of anti-trust policy and its impact on businesses, consumers, and the nation. It highlights the importance of fair competition and safeguarding the interest of the public.
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Running head: ANTI-TRUST POLICY: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACETS Anti-Trust Policy: Social and Economic Facets Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note
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1ANTI-TRUST POLICY: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACETS Anti-trust policy denotes the regulating policies controlling competition laws of a country or union. It is a significant competition policy instrument comprising several countries’ public policies regarding business in the domestic as well as international market.1 The motive of anti-trust policy is to facilitate the markets to function more competitively using fair means of competition. Although it faces confliction with antidumping policies, regulatory laws and industrial policies, yet it strives to make the market operate efficiently. Its primary goal is to provide economic efficiency and majorly depends on it too. However, it cannot be perceived that it only depends on economy, but social sciences aid in its functioning as well. Antitrust laws protects consumer from unfair anti-competitive mergers and malicious business practices. Antitrust policies have an impact on the economic and social policies.2The economic factor for antitrust policy is based on efficiency. Monopolistic nature of a company can act as a threat to the principles of competition policies of a nation. There are clear scenarios where companies have acted as monopolists, asking for high prices along with limited outputs. Antitrust policies tries to remove such monopoly and paves for a consumer friendly market. As for economic policies, antitrust laws keep a balance in the open market and hence keep the market free of complexities and malicious practices. It helps other economic laws and policies like Competition enactment or statutes on business laws to function better3. On a similar note, antitrust laws uplifts public and social policies too. Like in the case of Microsoft, the U.S. Courts held that Microsoft could not opt for monopolizing of change of its operating system into an Internet browser that would restrict its users to use the same browser. It was held that it would 1Phillips, Almarin, ed.Perspectives on antitrust policy. Vol. 2060. Princeton University Press, 2015. 2Auer, Dirk, and Nicolas Petit. "Two-sided markets and the challenge of turning economic theory into antitrust policy."The Antitrust Bulletin60.4 (2015): 426-461. 3Blair, Roger D., and D. Daniel Sokol, eds.The Oxford handbook of international antitrust economics. Vol. 2. Oxford Handbooks, 2015.
2ANTI-TRUST POLICY: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACETS not only affect the competitors, but it would violate of freedom to choose a comfortable browser, irrespective of an operating system4. Therefore, it can be pointed out that antitrust policies have a great impact on social policies as well, defending the consumers at large. It encourages companies to indulge in healthy competition, which helps them to come out with better goods and service in terms of improved quality and higher quantity. To conclude, antitrust policies not only aims to protect the businesses in an open market, it also strives to safeguards the consumers who are deriving benefits out of such businesses. It constantly keep a check on economic and social policies to safeguard the interest of the companies, the public and the nation, largely. 4Rubinfeld, Daniel L. "Book Review: The Microsoft Antitrust Cases-Competition Policy for the Twenty-First Century."Journal of Economic Literature52 (2015): 374.
3ANTI-TRUST POLICY: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACETS References: Auer, Dirk, and Nicolas Petit. "Two-sided markets and the challenge of turning economic theory into antitrust policy."The Antitrust Bulletin60.4 (2015): 426-461. Blair, Roger D., and D. Daniel Sokol, eds.The Oxford handbook of international antitrust economics. Vol. 2. Oxford Handbooks, 2015. Phillips, Almarin, ed.Perspectives on antitrust policy. Vol. 2060. Princeton University Press, 2015. Rubinfeld, Daniel L. "Book Review: The Microsoft Antitrust Cases-Competition Policy for the Twenty-First Century."Journal of Economic Literature52 (2015): 374.