JEAN MONNET - EU Competition Law and Social Inequality

Inequality concerns belong to the history of antitrust law. In 1890, Senator Sherman during the proceeding related to the enactment of its Act, which is the first antitrust legislation in the world, observed that: “the popular mind is agitated with problems that may disturb social order, and among them all of none are more threatening than inequality of condition, of wealth and opportunity that has grown within a single generation out of the concentration of capital into vast combinations to control production and trade and to break down competition”.  However, in the course of time, these concerns have been forgotten and undermined. Since the 1960s, the interpretation of American antitrust rules has been influenced by scholars belonging to the so-called Chicago School, who have argued that the only objective to pursue through antitrust is the increase of production efficiency and total welfare of society, disregarding distributive goals. In this perspective, anti-monopolistic legislation should not be applied to commercial practices which enrich companies more than they reduce the wealth of other parts of society, since the net balance of the operation remains positive. The intellectual dominance of this school of thought is reflected in the current characteristics of American society (10% of the population owns 47% of the wealth: source World inequality report 2018).   

The European Union has been more cautious, but nevertheless it has been strongly influenced by the thinking of the Chicago School. In concentration operations and abuses of dominant positions, the increase in aggregate wealth has been much more often emphasized than its distribution. In the last two years, in the United States, some important studies have been presented with the aim of critically reviewing the function and objectives of antitrust law as interpreted at Chicago. In particular, it has been noted that antitrust law has been emptied of its historical function of contrasting economic and political power and that a stricter control of the concentration of market power can contribute to a fairer distribution of wealth.   

The research module is built with the objective of contributing to the current European and international debate on the relation between competition rules and social inequalities. Social inequality is a Eu-related policy contained in Title X of the TFEU, although it is not among the core competences of the European Union. However, the need for a European action pursuing a fairer wealth distribution is the object of a growing request by European citizens. The module suggests to address this demand through a renewed interpretation of a traditional European policy: antitrust. The underlying assumption is the necessity and feasibility  of  rethinking the EU competition policy in order to foster the progressive redistribution of wealth in Europe. It is intended to constitute a first core of teaching and research to analyze the relationship between competition law and social inequality in the European Union.