Harm to one or more competitors, however severe, is not condemned by the Sherman Act in the absence of harm to the competitive process and thereby harm to consumers.
Mr. Leibowitz said that for the commission to apply Section 5 of the act, a company's action had to be unfair, deceptive and possibly causing harm to the competitive process.
In a report released Tuesday, the Legislative Analyst's Office, an independent, nonpartisan monitor for legislators, said the proposal was an "unnecessary, ill-conceived measure that would do serious harm to the budget process".
Even as Mr. McCain sought today to end the barrages by pulling all his attack ads in South Carolina, and calling on Mr. Bush to do the same, the two camps continued to trade accusations over who had done more harm to the political process.
Indeed, antitrust laws are concerned with harm to the competitive process, not merely harm to consumers.
Finally, it may not be obvious, but short-term consumer gains can still represent long-term harm to the competitive process and long-term harm to consumers.
Likewise, it is not an abstract discussion of consumers being unable to detect harm to the competitive process, but an example of undetected harm already occurring.
Concern with harm to the competitive process is considered important because even in the absence of past or present consumer harm, deliberately damaging the competitive marketplace enables future consumer harm.
It is sometimes sufficient to demonstrate harm to the competitive process, especially if it can be shown that this harm is the result of a deliberate attempt to achieve monopoly power.
A proper discussion of the benefits and limitations of the recent Consent Decree between the Department of Justice and Google, concerning Google's acquisition of ITA, needs to begin with a discussion of appropriate measures for potential harm to the competitive process and to potential competitors.
