Tackling grand challenges with competition law: lessons from the pandemic

All across the globe, antitrust authorities responded quickly to the outbreak of COVID-19, determined to tackle the worst impacts. While regulators and courts can apply competition and antitrust rules both as enforcing 'swords' to achieve public health goals and 'enabling' shields to promote specific collaboration, it appears that the 'enabling collaborations' function has been particularly important in facilitating an urgent response to the pandemic. This chapter describes these developments from the perspectives of past, present and future, specifically analysing (1) the interaction between competition law and public health, (2) the immediate response of antitrust authorities during the crisis, and (3) new approaches and solutions models. In particular, we will examine the question of whether current pandemic responses could provide competition authorities with a future blueprint and toolkit for action and a new role in the public ecosystem for implementing sustainable development objectives.