Brief Intro to Antitrust Law
There is a lot of information and regulations to antirust law. Here is a brief introduction to how antitrust law works and the purpose behind it.
Congress passed the first antitrust law, the Sherman Act, in 1890 as a “comprehensive charter of economic liberty aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade.” The antitrust laws proscribe unlawful mergers and business practices in general terms, leaving courts to decide which ones are illegal based on the facts of each case.
The goal of these laws is to provide an equal playing field for similar businesses that operate in a specific industry while preventing them from gaining too much power over their competition.
Antitrust laws are applied to a wide range of questionable business activities, including but not limited to market allocation, bid rigging, price fixing, and monopolies. Below, we take a look at the activities these laws protect against.
Though imperfect in application (like all legal institutions), the modern consumer-welfare approach to antitrust law has served the American public well.
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There is a lot of information and regulations to antirust law. Here is a brief introduction to how antitrust law works and the purpose behind it. Congress passed the first antitrust law, the Sherman Act, in 1890 as a “comprehensive charter of economic liberty aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of…