The Function Of The Consumer Interest In The Antitrust Law

This article is about how the consumer interest acts on the antitrust law, which has no unanimous view. Is protecting the consumer interest the goal of the antitrust law? What is the specificity of the consumer interest in the antitrust law? This article tries to answer those questions, and argues that the duality of the function that the consumer interest makes is unified in the antitrust law.This article, mainly by means of comparative analysis and case analysis, clears up the present views and concludes that the consumer interest has dual nature in the antitrust law: as the goal and as the standard. It analyses the reasons that the consumer interest works as the goal in the law, and finds out that protecting the consumer interest would not be the ultimate or the core goal of the antitrust law, it is only one goal the law pursues. Then it studies the application of the consumer interest standard, and concludes the main points of the content of the consumer interest as the standard. This article consists of three parts, except the introduction and the conclusion.Part One: it studies the specificity of the consumer interest in the antitrust law. After comparing the differences between the Antirust Law and the Consumer Protecting Law on the issues about protecting the consumer interest, this chapter discusses the relationship between the protecting the consumer's interest and the tenet of competition, and the value of efficiency. At last it sums up the main point of the article: the consumer interest makes the dual function in the Antitrust.Part Two: it reviews and evaluates the theory about the consumer interest as the goal of the Antitrust, analyses the economical, political, and jurisprudential reasons for the position as the goal of consumer interest. It believes that protecting the consumer interest is one goal in the Antitrust, but not the ultimate goal.Part Three: it analyses the standard function the consumer interest makes. By defining the precondition of the consumer interest as the standard, the article discusses the scope of application and the frame work of analysis of the consumer interest standard. It employs the cases to demonstrate the function the standard does, and sums up the content the standard reflects in the cases, which mainly consist of two aspects: consumer welfare and consumer choice. The article particularly analyses how these two aspects apply in the cases.