Should Wealth and Income Inequalities Be a Concern for Competition Law

Economic inequality is on the rise around the world. The gap between rich and poor has been widening steadily, with the covid-19 pandemic further reinforcing the trend. Differences in how much people own and earn have become so pronounced that they are causing serious economic, political and moral concern. As a result, academics, policy makers and politicians have been asking what generates these differences and how they could be curbed.This Research Paper investigates that whether the competition law enacted by the country, is miserably contributing to the observed inequality trends. While the link between competition law and inequality has historically been given little prominence in the inequality literature, on existing work by providing a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between competition law and income inequality across a wide range of jurisdictions over an extended time period.This paper seeks to build widespread acceptance of a prior relationship between effective competition law and inequality, the exact nature of the relationship between competition law and inequality remains largely unexplored empirically.A major source of wealth and income inequality appears to be the immense economic power enjoyed by large multinational corporations. Against this backdrop, prominent scholars have argued that a more equal society could be ensured through enforcement of competition rules, not least in labor markets. Yet, the precise extent to which competition law can and should be concerned with distributive issues remains unclear.