Competition Policy in Telecommunications: Regulation & Antitrust

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2003)

"Let antitrust do it!" is the refrain of this and many other skeptical regulators who question the need for continuing administrative regulatory involvement in network industries. The preference for antitrust comes from the relative coherence of the legal doctrine, the broad - yet principled - focus on consumer welfare and the lower error costs of fact-specific, ex post adjudication. Given this enthusiasm, it is incumbent on the Skeptical Regulator to describe the relationship between administrative regulation and antitrust law, and the place for each in a regulatory system aimed at enhancing consumer welfare.