A PYMNTS Company

Consumer Welfare in Competition and Intellectual Property Law

By  |  November 6, 2013

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Nicholas Kreisle, U.S. Federal Trade Commission – Bureau of Economics discusses Consumer Welfare in Competition and Intellectual Property Law

ABSTRACT: Whether antitrust policy should pursue a goal of “general welfare” or “consumer welfare” has been debated for decades. The academic debate is much more varied than the case law, however, which has consistently adopted consumer welfare as a goal, never condemning a practice found to produce an actual output reduction or price increase simply because productive efficiency gains accruing to producers exceeded consumer losses.