Politics and economics strive for the ideal case of a lively, well-functioning market or competition. If such a market exists, it promotes innovation and a good price-performance ratio for demanders/consumers. A good example of this is the Swiss telecommunications market, which was liberalised in 1998. The telecom monopolist «PTT» (Post, Telephone, Telegraph) became «Swisscom» in 1997, which was exposed to the free market in 1998. Even though Swisscom has faced relatively little competition as a result of liberalisation, this has led to enormous innovation and thus also to a significantly better price-performance ratio in the Swiss telecommunications market over the past 20 years.
The legal tool for achieving or at least promoting this competition is competition law, consisting of the tools of antitrust law and fair trade law.