INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW absurd to consider for a moment that the well-known “level playing field” which competition law should ensure for all market players must necessarily include green grass, fresh water and pure air. In fact, in a recent master thesis from Leiden University (2022), Tuncer Özgür Kiliç, argues that one of the goals of competition law is not just consumer welfare but the well-being of the EU people.28 Indeed, according to Article 3 TEU, the Union’s aim (“Ziel”) is to promote peace, the Union’s values and the well-being of its peoples (1). It shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and based on a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall promote scientific and technological advance (3). The Union shall pursue its objectives by appropriate means commensurate with the competences which are conferred upon it in the Treaties (6). According to Kiliç, “it is clear that EU competition law has objectives other than just regulating the market.”29 If so, competition law also has the objective to ensure sustainability and environmental protection. In short, Kiliç sees well- -being as “long-term consumer welfare”. Kiliç looks at well-being through the lens of digital regulation, but his argumentative pattern is fully transposable to sustainability. What Kiliç does not discuss in his paper is whether and how this long-term consumer welfare goal can transpire in a competition law decision in line with the principle of conferral. His reasoning implies that it could. If well-being is long-term consumer welfare within the meaning of Article 101(1) TFEU, DG Comp, national competition authorities (when applying Article 101 TFEU) and national courts could, and even would have to, prohibit environmentally harmful but financially pro- -competitive agreements. b) What is the reach of Querschnittsklauseln? An alternative path seems to be the route via the Querschnittsklauseln. This path may even be overlappting with Kiliç’s long-term consumer welfare. We need to go back to the basics. 28 The Hidden Goal of EU Competition Law: Well-Being of People, Leiden (2022). 29 Ibid., p. vii.
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