The Antitrust Paradox

"The Antitrust Paradox" is a 1978 book by Robert Bork that criticized the state of United States antitrust law in the 1970s. A second edition, updated to reflect substantial changes in the law, was published in 1993.

Bork argued that both the original intent of antitrust laws and economic efficiency required that consumer welfare, the protection of competition rather than competitors, be the only goal of antitrust law. [Bork (1978) p.405] Thus, while it was appropriate to prohibit cartels that fix prices and divide markets and mergers that create monopolies, allegedly exclusionary practices such as vertical agreements and price discrimination did not harm consumers and should not be prohibited. The paradox of antitrust enforcement was that legal intervention artificially raised prices by protecting inefficient competitors from competition.

From 1977 to 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States repeatedly adopted views stated in "The Antitrust Paradox" in such cases as "Continental T.V., Inc. v. GTE Sylvania Inc.", 433 U.S. 36 (1977), "Broadcast Music Inc. v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.", "NCAA v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Oklahoma", "Spectrum Sports Inc. v. McQuillan", "State Oil Co. v. Khan", "Verizon v. Trinko", and "Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc.", legalizing many practices previously prohibited.

References

* Bork, Robert H. (1978). "The Antitrust Paradox". New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-46-500369-9.
* Bork, Robert H. (1993). "The Antitrust Paradox" (second edition). New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-02-904456-1.