Competition Law as a Platform for Consumer Protection: A Nigerian Perspective

Abstract

The relevance of Competition Law to Consumer Protection has long been identified in developed economies. Although, private enterprise was vigorously pursued in these economies, there was however serious emphasis on fair trading and competition in the supply of goods and services to the consumer.[1] The idea behind this was to prevent the existence of monopolies in the market place. The belief being that when there is competition in the market place, the quality of goods and services supplied to the consumer would be high as each manufacturer or supplier would work assiduously to outdo the other.[2] The consumer would not only benefit from improved quality of goods and services, he would also get them on fair and reasonable prices.[3]Therefore, in this article, we shall examine the historical antecedents to the development of Competition Law as well as the specific fundamentals in the law that can be stretched for the benefit of the consumer in the manner identified earlier.

[1] See http://wikipedia.org/wiki/competition_law accessed on 25/11/2011

[2] See generally .Taylor Martyn. ‘International Competition Law: A new dimension for WTO accessed on http://www.google.com/books 25/11/2011

[3] See  S.Apinega ’The Goal of Anti-Trust Laws and The Concept of Consumer Welfare’(208-2009) 4  (1)A.B.U Law Journal,161-174