Why Sustainability Needs Antitrust
Sustainability promotes decisions that balance social, environmental, and economic values; antitrust seeks to preserve and promote commercial competition. This Comment argues that antitrust (1) can help ensure healthy competition in markets relevant to sustainability and avoid harm to competition from standard-setting, certification, and statistical programs that might hinder innovation or unfairly exclude competitors; (2) does not consider whether an action promotes or deters sustainability, nor is that a proper role for competition authorities; (3) encompasses reviews of competitor collaborations that need to consider the context and structure of modern markets as part of the analysis, as do sustainability evaluations; and (4) allows meaningful and constructive joint efforts to promote sustainability.