Competition law and equality

In the western world, there is legislation that prohibits anti-competitive collaborations between companies and that companies that have a dominant position take advantage of their market power. So also in Sweden. The purpose of competition law is ultimately to provide consumers with choices. When competition works, companies become more efficient and create higher quality while prices go down. The goal for Sweden is well-functioning markets and effective competition for the benefit of consumers. When competition is promoted, the Swedish Competition Authority states, more innovations are created than when companies have a monopoly, and thereby competition policy also promotes innovation. However, the Swedish Competition Authority, like many of its counterparts abroad, has not problematized the fact that men's innovation receives about 90 times as much financial resources as women's innovation, perhaps because they have not linked these issues from a competition law perspective and their effects on the markets. The question therefore needs to be posed: How does competition law relate to the lack of equality and the effects that these societal problems have on a market?

Not until a couple of years ago, the OECD drew attention to the blind spot in the Western world in terms of competition law and in particular gender equality. At the Swedish Competition Authority, you can only find this report from 2014 on how gender equality is developing in the markets that have been the subject of pro-competitive reforms. The fact that the markets on a foundational level risk excluding players who could contribute with a lot of innovation, higher quality and greater competition when preconceived notions among potential customers, buyers, partners or investors block access to the market, is a completely unexplored area in Swedish competition law.

The development of competition law and its connection to challenges concerning equality is still in its infancy. In principle, however, these issues concern the core of competition law. Competition law assumes that people are completely rational and do not take into account irrelevant factors. In business, we also often believe that we act completely rationally and make decisions based solely on objective factors. However, when it comes to preconceived notions, we know that this is not the case. If you have biases, you can opt out of better products and services and choose worse instead while still believing that you make rational choices. If many act in the same way, the market will be less efficient because it excludes those who could contribute to better products and lower prices. Just ask any woman who starts a business in areas that are dominated by men and where many believe that women are less competent. Lack of financing and willingness to buy leads to a less functioning market. Some may argue that it is still a sufficiently functioning market and not a competition law problem, but in fact the markets would probably be much more efficient, ultimately to the benefit of consumers, if also the lack of equality in business in terms of, for example, women's opportunities to run growth companies are investigated to a greater extent by the competition authorities.