Faults of antitrust laws
Presentation Type
Abstract
Faculty Advisor
Thomas Loikith
Access Type
Event
Start Date
25-4-2025 9:00 AM
End Date
25-4-2025 9:59 AM
Description
American antitrust laws, aimed at protecting consumers through fair competition and preventing monopolies, face a critical challenge: lax enforcement. This deficiency leads to higher prices, reduced consumer choice, and diminished product quality, directly harming consumer welfare. Furthermore, weakened enforcement enables powerful companies to suppress wages and eliminate jobs, negatively impacting workers. Recent interpretations of these laws have seemingly favored powerful businesses, creating an imbalance that demands immediate attention. Antitrust laws, designed to safeguard consumer welfare and promote fair economic competition, have undergone significant evolution. This analysis examines this evolution through economic, political, and legal lenses, highlighting inconsistencies in enforcement and gaps in individual protection. Regulatory agencies have, at times, ceded power to the very corporations they are meant to oversee. This has resulted in consumers becoming increasingly vulnerable to unchecked corporate practices. My research underscores the necessity for stronger legal protections for employees, who are often overlooked in antitrust cases. The frequent use of mergers to eliminate competition fosters monopolistic or oligopolistic market structures, necessitating stricter regulatory supervision. To address these issues, antitrust laws must be rigorously enforced, and regulatory agencies must actively curb anti-competitive behavior, block harmful mergers, and ensure equitable treatment for both consumers and workers.
Faults of antitrust laws
American antitrust laws, aimed at protecting consumers through fair competition and preventing monopolies, face a critical challenge: lax enforcement. This deficiency leads to higher prices, reduced consumer choice, and diminished product quality, directly harming consumer welfare. Furthermore, weakened enforcement enables powerful companies to suppress wages and eliminate jobs, negatively impacting workers. Recent interpretations of these laws have seemingly favored powerful businesses, creating an imbalance that demands immediate attention. Antitrust laws, designed to safeguard consumer welfare and promote fair economic competition, have undergone significant evolution. This analysis examines this evolution through economic, political, and legal lenses, highlighting inconsistencies in enforcement and gaps in individual protection. Regulatory agencies have, at times, ceded power to the very corporations they are meant to oversee. This has resulted in consumers becoming increasingly vulnerable to unchecked corporate practices. My research underscores the necessity for stronger legal protections for employees, who are often overlooked in antitrust cases. The frequent use of mergers to eliminate competition fosters monopolistic or oligopolistic market structures, necessitating stricter regulatory supervision. To address these issues, antitrust laws must be rigorously enforced, and regulatory agencies must actively curb anti-competitive behavior, block harmful mergers, and ensure equitable treatment for both consumers and workers.
Comments
Poster presentation at the 2025 Student Research Symposium.