Abstract: This paper interrogates the evolving role of antitrust law at the intersection of multiple legal regimes, including Intellectual Property Law, Foreign Investment Law, Space Law, Environmental Law, and Data Privacy and Protection Law. Traditionally focused on curbing monopolistic practices, antitrust frameworks are now challenged by innovation-driven markets, cross-border investments, and data-intensive digital ecosystems. Emerging domains such as space commerce, AI-driven market strategies, and environmental compliance demand regulatory approaches that reconcile market competitiveness with technological advancement, ecological sustainability, and social equity. The study proposes a forward-looking, interdisciplinary framework for antitrust enforcement, advocating collaboration among legal scholars, economists, technologists, and environmental experts to address novel market dynamics and potential conflicts between IP protection, competition, and societal interests. Using a comparative and doctrinal methodology, it identifies doctrinal tensions, enforcement challenges, and opportunities for innovative regulatory design. By anticipating future market complexities and integrating ethical and socio-legal considerations, this research positions antitrust law as a strategic enabler of innovation, consumer protection, responsible investment, and data privacy, offering actionable insights for policymakers and scholars navigating the evolving landscape of modern economic governance.
Keywords: Antitrust Law, Intellectual Property Law, Foreign Investment Law, Space Law, Environmental Law, Data Privacy and Protection Law
Introduction:
“Enduring market vitality is forged not by unbridled forces, but through the deliberate synergy of innovation, vigilant regulation, and collective responsibility.”
Antitrust law, also known as competition law, is a branch of regulation that seeks to preserve fair competition in markets by preventing monopolistic practices, abuse of dominance, and unfair restraints on trade. Its primary objective is to protect consumer welfare, encourage innovation, and ensure that markets remain open and efficient. Antitrust law, first conceptualized in the United States with the Sherman Act of 1890, drew on Louis Brandeis’s warnings against the democratic dangers of concentrated economic power and was later shaped by Robert Bork and Richard Posner to emphasize consumer welfare and efficiency. In India, competition regime has evolved from the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act of 1969, initially anchored in consumer welfare, to the Competition Act of 2002, now the constitutional cornerstone of modern market regulation. The Competition Commission of India, empowered to dismantle cartels, regulate mergers, and restrain abuse of dominance, exemplifies this transformation. Comparative frameworks – the Sherman Act, the FTC Act of 1914 in the United States, and Articles 101 and 102 of the TFEU in the European Union – demonstrate the universal role of competition law as a juridical safeguard of market order. In contemporary era, Scholars such as Shoshana Zuboff, Dina Srinivasan, and Michal Gal underscores the concentration of power in digital economies and the urgent need for antitrust law to address algorithmic dominance and platform monopolies. Antitrust law is at the cusp of transformation, intersecting with multiple allied legal regimes. It increasingly engages with intellectual property law to balance innovation with competition, with foreign investment law to regulate cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and with space law as commercial activities extend beyond Earth. Additionally, the rise of sustainability has brought environmental law into the fold of competition regulation, while the data protection and privacy regime plays a crucial role in addressing digital dominance by technology giants. Therefore, antitrust law is no longer confined to the boundaries of traditional economics; it is evolving into a multidisciplinary framework that safeguards fair competition in a complex, interconnected, and innovation-driven world.