Gal, Michal S.; Fish, Eran --- "Antitrust Pluralism and Justice – Comment on Al-Ameen" [2012] ELECD 415; 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 15

Section Title: Antitrust Pluralism and Justice – Comment on Al-Ameen

Author(s): Gal, Michal S.; Fish, Eran

Number of pages: 9

Extract:

15. Antitrust pluralism and justice ­
comment on Al-Ameen
Michal S Gal* and Eran Fish**

1 INTRODUCTION: BASIC CONDITIONS FOR A
LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Competition law is potentially driven by, and can promote, a multitude
of goals. Often these goals go in the same direction, so that furthering
one furthers all. For example, prohibiting hard-core cartels furthers con-
sumer welfare, total welfare, efficiency, and fairness. This is an easy case.
However, in some cases the goals, and the rights created and protected
by them, might clash. Take, for example, a merger in which distributive
justice and efficiency considerations might lead to different results.
This is where the previous chapter by Mr Al-Ameen1 (hereafter
referred to as `the chapter') fits in. He has taken upon himself an important
and formidable task ­ to try and create a framework for choosing among
and balancing between the different goals that competition law promotes
in cases in which they clash. His basic premise is that we do not have to
choose one goal over the other, but that competition law can promote a
multitude of goals in each case by balancing among them. He then devel-
ops a framework for choosing and balancing. Accordingly, rather than
holding a single ideology and setting goals a priori, the proposed approach
allows us to create a case-specific balance in every case. It is thus based on
the recognition of the importance of a plurality of values.
Let us start by saying that accommodating a multitude of ...