Misconceptions


The largest misconception in the business community is that the antitrust laws are there to protect competitors. Many believe that any time a competitor gets injured in the rough and tumble of the marketplace , the antitrust laws are not far behind. There is a general sense that somehow weaker or smaller or more thinly capitalized competitors ought to be protected against the process of competition.

Another misconception is that the antitrust laws unfairly penalize the highly successful companies, for example, like Microsoft. Sometimes businesspeople not those who were suffering from Microsoft, but those outside the industry view an entity like Microsoft as the epitome of success, and believe that the antitrust laws are being used to punish them for succeeding.

Antitrust laws do not punish success; they reward success. They punish conducts that denies competitors an ability to compete on the merits of their products, services and skills. It is the use, or abuse, of market power that the antitrust laws rain in. Market power as a concept factors into antitrust frequently both positively when used for customers benefit, and negatively when used to injure competition. But it is competition that is most important the process of it not the individual competitors. When one company has substantial market power, its competitors may suffer, but it is the reduction of customer options as a result that is the true concern of the antitrust laws.

These misconceptions may not remain long term . A gradual understanding has emerged that the antitrust laws serve consumer welfare and are not there for the protection of competitors. It is a recognition that is developing more slowly in Europe, where the Commission and the courts give a lot more weight to competitor complaints as it did in the General Electric/Honeywell matter.

The antitrust law has developed some in denying competitors much of an ability to challenge anticompetitive conduct. The principal champions of the antitrust laws are those who suffer when competition fails the customers. If the customer does not feel aggrieved, then neither should the competitor, who may be limited in its ability to bring an antitrust case.

Antitrust will remain a complex area of law for business; it is difficult to summarize in sound bites. Clearing up public misperceptions about it is largely an educational process, and it will not get cleared up very easily or very quickly. More business education will help going to clients and putting on seminars for their business development people and strategic planners.

Many of those at the top of companies, the CEOs and other C-level executives have worked with the antitrust laws and in antitrust matters over time and view it as a positive experience. What they do learn is how to think about their business, how to write about their business, how to conceptualize their strategies, and how to think through their customer goals. Antitrust law gives them a great understanding of key business drivers, and the lawful limits of strategic conduct.




Inside the Minds Stuff - Inside the Minds. Winning Antitrust Strategies
Inside the Minds Stuff - Inside the Minds. Winning Antitrust Strategies
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 102

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