Abstract:
Few concepts aptly captures competition law’s expectations on firms with
substantial market share or market power than ‘with great power, comes
great responsibility’, made popular in American movie Spider Man.
Although Spider Man helped made the concept popular, its true origin may
be religious teachings and ancient cultural wisdoms. The Bible, King James
Version, warns that “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be
much required”.
In African culture, the value or principle of Ubuntu, with its
emphasis on common humanity and good, counsels that one person
should not thrive at the expense, or to the exclusion, of others.
The relevance and application of these principles or values to commercial
relationships and rules of trade regulation, in particular competition law, is
the object of this paper. In some competition law jurisdictions, abuse of
dominance rules recognise, explicitly or impliedly, that firms with
substantial market share or market power have a special ‘duty’ or
‘responsibility’ to the market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate
the link between certain elements of this special duty or responsibility and
Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”). It is the argument of this paper
that the principle of special responsibility, as applied in competition and
abuse of dominance law, has elements of CSR.
