Mezzanotte & Hou (2015), "The Role of Presumptions of Market Dominance in Civil Litigation in China", Journal of Antitrust Enforcement 3(1), 108-131

Competition is the backbone of US economic policy. Competition advocacy is also

thriving internationally. Promoting competition is broadly accepted as the best

available tool for promoting consumer well-being. Competition officials, who

regularly try to protect the public from anticompetitive special interest legislation,

are justifiably jaded about complaints of excess competition. Although the

economic crisis has prompted some policymakers to reconsider basic assumptions,

the virtues of competition are not among them. Nonetheless to effectively advocate

competition, officials must understand when competition itself is the problem’s

cause, not its cure. Market competition, while harming some participants, often

benefits society. But does competition always benefit society? This is antitrust’s

blind spot. After outlining the virtues of competition, and discussing some

well-accepted exceptions to competition law, this article addresses four scenarios

where competition yields suboptimal results.