| The major premise of antitrust law in the United States over its 100-year history is that competition law and policy should lead to the enhancement of consumer welfare. Particularly since the mid-1970s, with the efforts from the Chicago and Harvard schools, antitrust law in the United States has found a balance between the interests of producers and consumers within the competition law regime In this regard, antitrust of the United States can be regarded as being fair because it does not provide prejudiced treatment to either the producers or consumers within the competition law regime Further, antitrust law in the United States has endeavored significantly to endorse dynamic consideration in order to protect the competitive process in the markets.;Although Korean competition laws, endorsing the consumer welfare paradigm, have progressively developed to maintain competition in the market since 1980, the recent judicial opinions and administrative decisions seem to be lost without direction. Additionally, those decisions do not appear to suitably recognize dynamic consideration in their decision making process. Moreover, excessive consumer protection is a move towards protection of competitors, not competition and downplays dynamic consideration, a lubricant of the competitive process. Furthermore, a common argument among Korean scholars that Korea has a distinctive market situation where large business conglomerates dominate many industrial sectors does not also make any economic sense at least in terms of competition policy.;Therefore, this dissertation, recognizing these problems of Korean competition laws, will consider improvements to the competition law and policy of Korea by minoring experiences of the United States. This dissertation will begin by contradicting the common argument of unique economic circumstances, and demonstrating how a monopoly (or dominance) should be recognized to contain dynamic consideration in competition policy. Further, policy suggestions will be proposed to break free from the dilemma on large business conglomerates, which have stood at the center of competition law issues. |
