Resumen de Competition Law and Public Interest: A Challenge for Adjudication

Dennis M. Davis

• This paper engages with the increasing concern that competition law can no longer concentrate exclusively on anarrow focus on price increases and output diminution. Within the context of growing global inequality and theexponential increase in economic power in the hands of a few, there is a need to develop a coherent jurisprudencecapable of addressing manifest abuses of economic power. These challenges are not confined to any single jurisdic-tion. One particularly instructive response can be found in South Africa. Faced with an Apartheid-shaped economythat reflected this global problem, South Africa responded with legislation that expanded the scope of competitionlaw to embrace a range of defined public interest concerns. In analysing the key developments of the public interestjurisprudence that has emerged in response to this legislation, this paper draws on the South African experience as asource of insight for other jurisdictions—including the European Union—seeking to develop a coherent, yet expan-sive, competition law for the 21st century.