Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic of Latin American Competition Policy
Competition authorities and policymakers around the world have devoted a growing proportion of their time and resources over the last decade to digital markets. Typically, this attention has been accompanied by vocal antipathy toward large digital platforms, as regulators and lawmakers invoke the need to “rein in digital monopolies” that allegedly cause a broad array of social harms.
As I detail in a new International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) white paper, Latin America has been no exception to this trend. Competition authorities in Latin America have targeted digital markets by initiating cases, investigations, and studies similar to those in Europe and the United States. At the same time, the region’s competition agencies have come under harsh criticism for allegedly being “too technocratic” and “too narrowly focused” on consumer welfare. Some populists have attacked competition agencies for being “neoliberal institutions,” with calls to curb their powers or take away their independence.
As I argue in the ICLE white paper, Latin American agencies should resist these pressures and use their scarce enforcement resources to address behavior that truly hurts consumers and distorts competition. Toward that end, digital markets need not (and likely should not) be their primary concern.