Special Interest Over Public Interest: Why a Return to Antitrust’s Rent-Seeking Past Will Fail Consumers

Antitrust “reformers” insist that big corporations’ abuse of power and the accompanying societal ills compel abandonment of the consumer-welfare standard in favor of a vague structuralist test. But as our panelists will explain, history and economic theory dictate that deep-pocketed, well-connected special interests can and will exploit the increased discretion a pliable standard affords regulators. Such an outcome, they will contend, will serve neither consumers nor other intended beneficiaries of a Neo-Brandeisian approach to antitrust.