ABSTRACT
Economics has had a huge effect on competition law. Earlier, the courts made efforts to protect the competition and not competitors. Courts now act as protectors of smaller firms to an economic standard of antitrust liability, which focuses entirely on antitrust market effects. There has been a shift from the per se rules to the rule of reason analysis. Two new trends have emerged due to the change in understanding of competition law. The first trend is the increased relevance of economic efficiencies, and the second one is the necessity to demonstrate anti-competition market effects. Competition law is about economics and economic behaviour. 1 It is necessary that an economic assessment of terms like ‘market definition’ and ‘market power’ is done so that it becomes easier to understand competition law in those terms. The study of markets is primary to the study of competition law. The main object of this field of law is to ensure that there is continuous competition between suppliers and that consumers/buyers benefit from such competition. The application of competition law involves identifying markets and assessing whether this competition is working well. The study of economics involves how markets work. By understanding economics, we can know how markets operate and know whether the behaviour of firms will result in a competition that is likely to benefit consumers. Today, economics is an essential tool to access market power and to determine the boundaries of market.
