Summer 2022, July, Volume 2

The practice of antitrust law is essentially an exercise in tradeoffs. How does a given practice by businesses benefit consumers? And how does it potentially harm them? Some practices are unambiguous: cartels, for example, produce no conceivable consumer benefit (and depress the economy as a whole). Other practices (particularly involving potential abuses of dominance) involve a more complex analysis of the inherent tradeoffs involved. This is all the more true as the economy becomes increasingly complex (particularly as regards digital markets, and platform businesses). The pieces in this Chronicle analyze the increasingly difficult question of how these tradeoffs should be addressed, with a focus on the digital economy.