Was the biggest Cola rivalry contributing substantially to economic well being of United States? Did OPEC fail in its objective of influencing global oil prices as a cartel? How did the merger between American Online and Time Warner Inc. impact their market share? And if we look at a broader picture can we say that competition is critical to operation to functioning of the market? Research shows that it is becoming more and more difficult for new firms to break into the market. Does it mean that government should enforce anti- trust legislations? Competition is a condition where different firms seek to share a limited good by varying price, production, place and promotion. Competition puts pressure on the firms to provide a wide and best varieties of goods and services at fair prices to everyone who is willing to buy those goods and services. A competitive market ensures well being of both consumers and sellers. For firms to remain in the market they need to quote low prices for their products or the consumers would shift to other sellers. Consumers get more choices. Producers too would focus on the efficiency and quality of their products to gain an edge in the market. Fierce competition would promote innovation as different firms would work to retain their consumer bases and expand them too. Even in the absence of labor laws, these firms would have to work in tandem treating their workers well so that they can take best out of them which means the workers will be given incentives. Reducing competition would take a toll on country’s revenue collection as well. If major competitors in a market merge, the earnings of government from corporate profits would shrink over time.  A paper published by National Bureau of Economic Research notes about Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing platform wherein there are few buyers of labor but loads of sellers which eventually lead to pushing down of wages of sellers that was lower than what could have been possible under competitive market. Lack of competition is one of the major causes behind lack of employment opportunities. The absence of strong competition laws propels firms to resort to unfair trade practices. Some firms imply a strategy of predatory pricing: artificially lowering the prices to a level so that other competitors are compelled to move out of the market. Some firms may deliberately choose not to deal with others restricting market activity. Some firms might indulge in exclusive supply agreements which prevents suppliers dealing in inputs with other parties. So from these arguments we can conclude that competition infuses dynamism in economy. Further in long run it ensures that there is an equitable economic growth across various sectors. Furthermore, there arises a need of statutes that can prevent businesses from indulging in any sort of anti-competitive behavior. This calls for governmental intervention in market. Historically such legislations have existed in United States. The first and foremost of these was Sherman Antitrust Legislation passed in 1890 to reduce the power of the dominating trusts in economy at that time. The Clayton Antitrust legislation in 1914, furthered empowered the government to take steps to curb monopoly powers. Further the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 outlawed all unfair competitive practices and all those practices that distorted competition. Closer to home, we had the Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1969 which prevented the concentration of economic power in hands of few and provided for control for monopolies. This archaic law was scrapped in 2002 and a new Competition Law was enacted to prevent any such activities that would be distorting competitive activities. This law constituted the Competition Commission of India which was mandated to:
• To prohibit the agreements or practices that have or are likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in a market in India, (horizontal and vertical agreements / conduct);
• To prohibit the abuse of dominance in a market;
• To prohibit acquisitions, mergers, amalgamations etc. between enterprises which have or are likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in market(s) in India.
These laws also aim to prevent mergers if they are not in general economic well being of nation. Mergers are legitimate when they can expand markets and ensures benefits reaches to consumer as well. These laws primarily aim at providing a level-playing field to all firms. They aim to prohibit all such agreements or practices that can be detrimental to the competitive environment in the country. It is important that these antitrust legislations work efficiently to ensure a sound competitive environment in an economy.  Prevention of cartels should be the main objectives of these legislations. As we saw in case in OPEC, these nations cartelized to increase the prices and reduced the supply of oil which was harming consumers. Antitrust legislations should be strictly empowered to contain any rise of cartels. They should aim at protecting competitors and not competition. There should be some standards for evaluating the agreement s between different firms. There have been cases where mergers between firms have been politicized. However competition statutes should ensure that mergers should be strictly on economic basis only. All decisions should be supported by strong empirical evidences. Any such statutory body has immense responsibility to ensure all decisions taken are fair and transparent. Digital platforms have become centrepiece of global economy and they are influencing our lives daily. They provide multi-sized platforms . However the big data companies have become extremely power, controlling large quantities of data. Technological prowess has made it imperative for authorities to ensure that free and fair competition takes place in digital businesses as well. Antitrust legislations were revised in Germany to assess the power of various firms in digital market. So as we saw how competition has been helpful in stimulating economic growth and we should not forget we as consumers that whichever product we buy is crucial in deciding which way the market goes. Sound competition policy backed by empirical evidences and in sync with economic policies will unleash the entrepreneurial spirits in economy and would lead to holistic growth.