 PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT AND JUDICIAL DISCRETION IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANTITRUST IN THE UNITED STATESReza Rajabiun Journal of Competition Law and Economics, 2012, vol. 8, issue 1, 187-230 Abstract: The role of private enforcers in the implementation of laws against anticompetitive practices remains a subject of considerable controversy. The economic approach to the analysis of crime and punishment suggests that private rights of action can complement the information and incentives of public agents in the identification and deterrence of costly market behavior. This article studies the complementarities between public and private enforcement mechanisms. Long-term data on case filings, administrative resources, and judicial outcomes from the United States reveal that mixed regimes allow for the specialization of tasks between public and private enforcers: competition authorities focus on the regulation of dominance, while private litigants tend to identify collusion in contractual relations. The analysis further documents how judicial discretion under the rule-of-reason approach to substantive interpretation limits the predictability and credibility of legal constraints against anticompetitive practices. JEL-codes: K21 K40 L40 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jcomle:v:8:y:2012:i:1:p:187-230. Access Statistics for this article Journal of Competition Law and Economics is currently edited by Nicholas Economides, Amelia Fletcher, Michal Gal, Damien Geradin, Ioannis Lianos and Tommaso Valletti More articles in Journal of Competition Law and Economics from Oxford University Press |
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