Antitrust in High-Technology Industries : A Symposium Introduction

One of the most interesting and challenging phenomena of our information age is the rapid and significant change that takes place in high-technology industries. This change is shaking some of our assumptions regarding the role of technology (e.g., endogenous or exogenous), productions methods (e.g., commercial entities vs. social communities), markets (e.g., product or innovation markets), market characteristics (e.g., network industries, faster information transfer to market players and consumers), and non-market management systems. . It requires us to recognize the effects of such changes on the economic environment and to ensure that our regulatory tools secure the positive welfare effects that such changes can bring about. The papers in this special issue of the Journal of Competition Law and Economics attempt to meet this two-pronged challenge and shed light on the implications of changes in the marketplace for both the market's invisible hand and the government's visible one. In particular, they address the over-arching concerns expressed by some commentators that competition law may not be sufficiently nimble or accurate to detect and remedy competition violations in more innovative industries