The Business Law Section of the American Bar Association sponsors me as a Consumer Fellow to the activities of the Section. This fact is recited only to demonstrate my background in this area. This comment is outside the scope of that grant, so should be taken as my personal comment. Our free market economy, with limitations preventing abuses, benefits consumers. The benefits of the free market economy depend on competition.
Competition occurs on price, features, purchase terms, quality etc.
The products complete, and consumers choose the product that wins the competition from the consumer's point of view. The product that has the combination of price, features, purchase terms, and quality that consumers choose becomes, by virtue of its characteristics, the successful product in the free marketplace. Those that do not, fall by the way. For this competition to work, consumers must have information about the price, features, purchase terms quality, etc in order to make their choice. And they must have it at the time they make the choice.