In the 80s a bunch of federal judges adopted the "consumer welfare" standard, which argued that we should only consider antitrust violations that harm, well...

In the 80s a bunch of federal judges adopted the "consumer welfare" standard, which argued that we should only consider antitrust violations that harm, well... consumer welfare. Since this was the 80s and Reagan-style free market rhetoric was in fashion, this became the new law of the land. Problem is, very few antitrust violations actually meet this standard, because most companies aren't buying other companies purely to jack up prices. The harm is a lot more subtle. If you remember the days of "disruptive innovation", that could be looked at as monopolists getting punished for being too large and ignoring new technologies. Now, because antitrust is basically not enforced anymore, incumbents just buy their disruptors and integrate them into the whole. Startups no longer exist to create new products, but to eat up chunks of a big company's M&A budget for that year. I'm hopeful that Lina Khan turns the ship around on this but it will take a decade, at least.