Competition law as a catalyst for collective market governance: gauging the discursive benefits of intensified administrative action

Abstract

This article offers a novel perspective on competition law's role in concentrated markets. While progressive views arguably flout just about anything that traditional legal doctrine esteems - advocating that competition law should be reconfigured to address a broader set of values beyond the welfare of consumers - established viewpoints hold that the subject of these attacks is the sheer size of digital platforms, although this overlooks their character as networked industries that overwhelmingly generate consumer benefits. Both views miss a crucial issue: they blur the vital role that competition law's emphasis on consumers plays in producing welfare and prosperity when competition- and non-competition-related problems of market power are entwined. In particular, an intensified extent of administrative action helps to put in place the discursive benefits gained by advancing a proper dialogue between leading actors and consumers, and encourages a greater extent of integration of consumers' views into the market.