Antitrust and “Agnosticism”: How Enforcers Think About Cases in Markets With Outsize Impact on Society, Human Health, and Vulnerable Groups

Ruled by Reason

On this 25th podcast episode, AAI President Diana Moss and enforcement experts, Stephen Calkins and Benjamin Elga, unpack antitrust enforcement in markets that raise issues around social well-being, human health, and vulnerable consumers and workers. Antitrust is designed to deter and remediate harmful, anticompetitive mergers and conduct while remaining “agnostic” to the markets in which competitive concerns arise. In applying the consumer welfare standard, antitrust enforcement addresses adverse price, quality, and innovation effects and, implicitly, the distribution of wealth between firms and consumers. However, there are some markets where higher prices might beneficially reduce demand for products or services that have adverse effects on society or human health, such as cigarettes, sugar, or violent video games. Similarly, antitrust could sometimes be more aggressive in order to protect vulnerable consumer groups, including lifeline wireless service, or prison inmate calling services. This episode unpacks this issue from both the public and private enforcement perspective, asking how enforcers think about cases involving such markets and what questions they raise.