Schweitzer, Heike --- "Efficiency, Political Freedom and the Freedom to Compete – Comment on Maier-Rigaud" [2012] ELECD 409; in Zimmer, Daniel (ed), "The Goals of Competition Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Goals of Competition Law

Editor(s): Zimmer, Daniel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857936608

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: Efficiency, Political Freedom and the Freedom to Compete – Comment on Maier-Rigaud

Author(s): Schweitzer, Heike

Number of pages: 13

Extract:

9. Efficiency, political freedom and the
freedom to compete ­ comment on
Maier-Rigaud
Heike Schweitzer* 113




In his interesting contribution on the `Normative Foundations of
Competition Law', Maier-Rigaud tries to array important intellectual
schools of competition policy with a view to their guiding goals. The `more
economic approach' ­ the approach which Maier-Rigaud seems to follow
­ takes efficiency to be the predominant goal of EU competition law. The
debate which has evolved around the `more economic approach' has fre-
quently been described as a `battle of goals', namely of `efficiency versus
freedom', where the `freedom to compete' (or `Wettbewerbsfreiheit') marks
a widely recognized normative reference point in the German tradition
of competition law. According to Maier-Rigaud, the focus on `economic
freedom' is, however, not truly `ordoliberal' ­ it is, rather, a `neoliberal'
aberration from the original ordoliberal position. The `real' ordoliberals
were not, or so he claims, concerned with economic liberties. They were
concerned with fighting economic power with a view to protecting the
foundations of democracy. According to Maier-Rigaud, the much debated
`more economic approach' is compatible with the early ordoliberal focus
on economic power. It merely breaks with the `neoliberal' tradition ­ which
never had a strong basis in German or EU competition law anyway.
This comment takes issue with Maier-Rigaud's reconstruction of the
history of German and EU competition law. More importantly, it strives
to present a more nuanced picture of the lines of conflict which the debate
surrounding the `more economic approach' has ...