The Differing Treatment of Efficiency and Competition in Antitrust and Tortious Interference Law

During the last twenty years, there has been a revolution in antitrust law. As a result of extensive scholarly and judicial analysis, a new learning has developed concerning the content, role, and effect of antitrust doctrines. This trend has focused primarily on the primacy of consumer welfare and economic efficiency. Most commentators now assume that these two interrelated goals are the principal, if not exclusive, concerns of antitrust law. The United States Supreme Court has responded to these new approaches by modifying or altering antitrust law in a long series of cases. Similarly, the new learning has affected the focus of antitrust enforcement by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.While these changes have occurred in the federal area, the state law of business torts has moved in a different direction. Indeed, the interaction between antitrust law and tortious interference doctrines has followed an unusual pattern