A Renewed Vision of Market Definition's Importance: Competition Law in the Collective Interest

This working paper presents a renewed vision of the role of market definition in competition law, emphasizing its importance in safeguarding the collective interest. This paper argues that market definition is crucial for ensuring the legitimacy of competition law enforcement. While often brushed aside as a technical or procedural step, this paper contends that market definition has normative value, aligning competition law enforcement with its overarching goal of protecting the collective interest. By drawing a market's boundaries, authorities can illustrate how their enforcement activities are focused on the collective interest, the public good, and evidence their competence to act and apply competition law (rather than other areas of law or regulation). Furthermore, the paper explores the boundaries between competition law and other legal frameworks, such as intellectual property and consumer protection, to illustrate why market definition remains a distinct and vital tool in competition cases. Through this fresh perspective, the paper intends to address calls to abandon market definition, while contributing to ongoing debates about the scope and purpose of competition law in a rapidly evolving economic and societal landscape.