Consumer sovereignty: New boundaries for telecommunications and broadband access

Antitrust and consumer protection laws share a common purpose to facilitate the exercise of effective consumer choice. This article uses this concept of consumer sovereignty to frame analysis of the shifting boundaries between the industry-specific and general business legal regimes for telecommunications and broadband access services. A critical distinction in the temporal sequencing of the evolution of the original industry-specific and general business regimes in the US relative to other nations appears to confer institutional differences for developing and implementing deregulatory policies. In the US, issues of consumer sovereignty are being addressed through an uncoordinated stream of piecemeal litigation primarily through interpretation of numerous savings clauses. By contrast, other nations are demonstrating a greater ability or willingness to conduct a holistic review and coordination of consumer protection remedies.