The Misguided Assault on the Consumer Welfare Standard in the Age of Platform Markets

In this paper, we discuss whether the consumer welfare (CW) standard needs to be replaced or revised in order for antitrust law to deal effectively with the economic challenges of the platform economy. We argue that both the general and platformspecific assaults on the CW standard are misguided, tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of industrial organization Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 741 - 774
Main Authors: Melamed, A. Douglas, Petit, Nicolas
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York Springer Science + Business Media 01.06.2019
Springer US
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Antitrust laws
Assaults
Competition
Consumerism
Economics
Economics and Finance
Industrial Organization
Labor market
Markets
Microeconomics
Political power
Politics
Social networks
Welfare
Consumer welfare
Competition
Platforms
Market power
Monopoly
Antitrust
ISSN:0889-938X, 1573-7160
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this paper, we discuss whether the consumer welfare (CW) standard needs to be replaced or revised in order for antitrust law to deal effectively with the economic challenges of the platform economy. We argue that both the general and platformspecific assaults on the CW standard are misguided, that the CW standard is capable of addressing the economic concerns that critics have raised, and that the proposed alternatives would make things worse—not better.
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ISSN:0889-938X
1573-7160
DOI:10.1007/s11151-019-09688-4