Recently, the EU enacted provisions that could lead to a tendency that restrictions of competition are appraised more and more by economic criteria, such as socialor consumer welfare or in short, under efficiency criteria. Furthermore, many academic scholars are proposing that the function and purpose of competition law shall no longer be that of ensuring the freedom to compete but rather the promotion of economic and social welfare. This article deals with the question on what grounds the primary goal of (...) antitrust policy should be the enhancement of social- or consumer welfare. Therefore, the article first gives an overview of the economic efficiency criteria. Then, the different justifications of economic efficiency are discussed, including the utilitarian approach, consensus theory and pragmatism. The article ends with personal conclusions. (shrink)