The Business Revolution and Antitrust Market Definition: The Role of Time

This article was originally published by Competition Policy International here. The views expressed in this paper are the sole responsibility of the author and cannot be attributed to Compass Lexecon or any other parties.

Introduction

Time should be an important part of antitrust market definition. The economy is going through extensive technological change that I refer to as the Business Revolution. The Business Revolution involves the automation of market transactions, business decision making, and production using advances in communications, computers, software, robotics, and artificial intelligence (“AI”). Antitrust market definition should be updated to reflect the impact of the Business Revolution on competition. I argue that antitrust market definition should be a trio – consisting of not just products and locations, but also time.