Nihoul, Paul L. --- "Is Competition Law Part of Consumer Law?" [2011] ELECD 744; in Drexl, Josef; Grimes, S. Warren; Jones, A. Clifford; Peritz, J.R. Rudolph; Swaine, T. Edward (eds), "More Common Ground for International Competition Law?" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: More Common Ground for International Competition Law?

Editor(s): Drexl, Josef; Grimes, S. Warren; Jones, A. Clifford; Peritz, J.R. Rudolph; Swaine, T. Edward

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849803946

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Is Competition Law Part of Consumer Law?

Author(s): Nihoul, Paul L.

Number of pages: 11

Extract:

4. Is competition law part of consumer
law?
Paul L. Nihoul

1 INTRODUCTION

I would like to thank the authors of the preceding chapters for their impor-
tant contributions to the role of consumer choice in competition law. In
their contributions, they have sketched a proposal to establish a rational
link between the market process ­ the process of economic competition ­
and a category of people: the consumers.
The proposals appear to me to be a logical step, me being a European
academic spending my professional life studying the decisions adopted
by the European Commission and the judgments issued by the European
courts in the field of competition. Both types of instances indeed empha-
size in the documents they produce that competition should aim at pro-
ducing opportunities for consumers.1
The proposals made also strike a sympathetic cord within me, since
my main academic interests are precisely competition law and consumer
protection. The authors could not find a more sympathetic commentator
to their proposals eager to work in the same direction. In this context, I
will ask three questions relating to three important concepts that might have
to be worked upon if we want to further the work on the said proposals,
which have been submitted in the preceding chapters.


2 THE CONCEPT OF COMPETITION

I would certainly agree that competition is necessary to provide consumers
with choice. To me, it appears that real choice for consumers is equivalent


1 See, e.g. Commission Decision (EC) 2007/53, Case COMP/ ...