The Goals of EU Competition Law: A Query on the Socio-Political Policy Goals

EU competition law has developed through political and economic demands for achieving fair and pro-competitive market environments, thereby improving the internal market. In particular, competition law has functioned as a major means for ensuring non-discriminatory business activities. Accordingly, it has been traditionally regarded as the driving engine for the sound market and for the establishment of federalisation of the EU. However, there are some difficult tasks for the European Commission to harmonise various goals of EU competition law. Commentators argue that there are some clashes between the goals when non-economic or social goals come into conflicts with the objective of economic efficiency in competition law and policy. Then, one may question whether the EU competition regime should focus only on improving efficiency, which is one of the most favored languages in other competition law jurisdictions, or on ensuring other social and political policy goals. This article intends to examine whether the goal of EU competition law is to seek the non-economic objectives or to improve economic efficiency. It also aims at discussing the efforts for harmonising various goals through adopting more efficiency-based legislation.