Werden, Gregory J. --- "Consumer Welfare and Competition Policy" [2011] ELECD 338; in Drexl, Josef; Kerber, Wolfgang; Podszun, Rupprecht (eds), "Competition Policy and the Economic Approach" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Competition Policy and the Economic Approach

Editor(s): Drexl, Josef; Kerber, Wolfgang; Podszun, Rupprecht

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848448841

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Consumer Welfare and Competition Policy

Author(s): Werden, Gregory J.

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

1. Consumer welfare and competition
policy
Gregory J. Werden*

The discourse on competition policy often uses the term `consumer
welfare' but rarely is clear about its meaning or role. Commissioner Neelie
Kroes (2005) once declared without elaboration: `Consumer welfare
is now well established as the standard the Commission applies when
assessing mergers and infringements of the Treaty rules on cartels and
monopolies.' The European Commission's (2008) press release announc-
ing the Article 102 TFEU (then Article 82 EC) guidance paper was headed
`Antitrust: consumer welfare at heart of Commission fight against abuses
by dominant undertakings'. The exposition of that statement in the paper
itself (European Commission 2009: para. 19), however, consisted of little
more than the following:

The aim of the Commission's enforcement activity in relation to exclusionary
conduct is to ensure that dominant undertakings do not impair effective com-
petition by foreclosing their rivals in an anticompetitive way and thus having an
adverse impact on consumer welfare, whether in the form of higher price levels
than would have otherwise prevailed or in some other form such as limiting
quality or reducing consumer choice.

I address the meaning and role of `consumer welfare' in three discrete
essays. The first reviews key economic concepts and the usage of the
term `consumer welfare', then outlines distinct ways in which `consumer
welfare' considerations could be relevant in competition law. The second
essay examines the meaning and role of `consumer welfare' in merger
control. It concludes that the welfare of all consumers ...