Consumer welfare standard

Under the consumer welfare standard, a corporate merger is deemed anti-competitive “only when it harms both allocative efficiency and raises the prices of goods above competitive levels or diminishes their quality".

[2] This contrasts with earlier frameworks of antitrust theory, and more recently the New Brandeis movement, which argue that corporate mergers are inherently detrimental to consumers because of the diminishing competition resulting from it.

The roots of the consumer welfare standard can be found in the work of conservative legal scholar Robert Bork, most notably in his 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox.

These critics argue that, by emerging as the dominant form of antitrust analysis by courts and regulators, the consumer welfare standard has led to less competition and an increase in the average market share of firms in a given sector.

These include Jonathan Kanter,[8] Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and Lina Khan,[9] Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).