The Antitrust Prohibition of Favoritism, or the Imposition of Corporate Selflessness

The U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google blames the company for default settings enforced via several deals and deems self-preferencing to be anticompetitive conduct under antitrust rules. Though these charges are dubious in their remits, they represent a new and problematic antitrust theory prohibiting favoritism. Aurelien Portuese argues in Truth on the Market that the DOJ’s attempt to instill corporate selflessness in this way is at odds with competition on the merits and the spirit of fundamental economic freedoms.