Compensation for Antitrust Violations: An Economic Perspective

In: The Antitrust bulletin: the journal of American and foreign antitrust and trade regulation, Band 61, Heft 3, S. 357-364

Abstract

Antitrust systems that permit private enforcement must choose between prioritizing compensation or deterrence as primary goals given the inevitable trade-offs. Although a number of systems that have been transitioning towards private enforcement—the EU in particular—have recently sided with compensation as the primary goal, it is doubtful that antitrust generally can achieve effective compensation to consumers as compensation is traditionally understood in remedial systems. This article considers the possibility of reaching for a different definition of compensation than conventionally understood and casts doubt on the advisability of such a move.