Can We Protect Competition Without Protecting Consumers?

Abstract

Competition belongs to one of the most important values of the European Union. However, competition is not an exclusive path to create welfare and generate efficiency. In this respect competition can be seen as a ‘luxury product’ of market-oriented societies, which is not indispensable for achieving such values as industrial growth, market integration, social coherency, consumer welfare or innovations. Why then should competition be perceived as a separate economic value? What features does it contain which are so important for liberal democracy? How should competition be correlated with consumer welfare? These questions are central to this paper, which argues for conceptual separation of competition and consumer welfare and offers a methodology for the ‘unbundled’ analysis of these societal values.