BOOK REVIEW: Viktorija MOROZOVAITE on The making and unmaking of ordoliberal language: a digital conceptual history of European competition law, by Anselm Küsters (Comparative Legal History, XIII (2025), nr. 2 (December), pp. 347-351)

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In recent years, with digitalisation and the rise of powerful technology companies, crises related to climate change and inequality, and the European quest for strategic autonomy, the competition law community has faced a revival of debates about the goals of competition law and its analytical tools, methods and institutions. While epithets such as ‘unprecedented times’ may underscore the intensity of emergent challenges, they should be used with caution. Although there is a clear need to test the limits of existing competition law doctrines and explore creative legal solutions, a closer look at the historical development of EU competition law may offer valuable lessons for approaching them.

The origins of EU competition law remain contested. David Gerber, in his seminal work, argued that ‘ordoliberal ideas have penetrated the thought, institutions and practices of the European Community, and this has spread their influence throughout the member states of the Community’, particularly in the field of competition law. Ordoliberalism, also known as the Freiburg School, emphasises the necessity for a rules-based economic order, with a strong state bound by the rule of law capable of curbing private power and safeguarding (individual) economic freedom. However, other scholars have challenged Gerber’s thesis, viewing ordoliberal influence as overstated or misinterpreted.

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DOI: 10.1080/2049677X.2025.2580112