Antitrust Laws Of The Sherman Act And The Ftc Act

The paper will serve as a historical background overview of how the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) came into existence. The paper will also break down the key components for which the FTC covers, such as deceptive advertising, baiting and switching and consumer fraud. There will be examples

A preliminary question is what is antirust liability? While there are other statutes, the Sherman Antitrust Act is the signature law prohibiting antitrust activity. The act defines antitrust activity as any “restraint of trade or commerce.” It also prevents persons from monopolizing or attempting to monopolizing trade. The act is only concerned with restrains of trade that are “unreasonably restrictive of competitive conditions.” A secondary requirement is that there be “concerted action,” which requires more than unilateral behavior by individual actors. Examples of antitrust violations include price-fixing, allocations of territory or customers, and exclusive dealing agreements. Antitrust laws can be enforced either through actions brought by

The Federal Trade Commission actively enforces antitrust laws to organizations within the healthcare field, including to Physician Hospital Organizations (PHOs). A PHO is a vehicle that enables hospitals and physicians to work cooperatively toward accomplishing several objectives (Physician, 2015). According to Susan Creighton (2004), competitive issues among PHOs can occur when a PHO acts as a contracting arrangement for a network of healthcare providers. The network can consist of groups of physicians, one hospital or several, and also some other entities that offer a bundle of healthcare services to insurance companies and other payors (Creighton, 2004). The FTC states that the core antitrust law principle is that it is illegal for competitors to agree on prices they will charge, except where they come together and integrate in a legitimate joint venture that results in efficiencies or other precompetitive benefits that outweigh the restriction of competition (Creighton, 2004). Agreements that violate the antitrust law can be determined as per se illegal. Per se illegal means that activities, such as horizontal price fixing, or group boycotts, have been conclusively presumed to restrain competition unreasonably even without a study of the market that they occurred in, or an analysis of their actual effect on competition, or their purpose (Burke, et al., 2009). South Georgia Health Partners are an example of a PHO that was charged by the commission on a per se illegal

The variances between criminal law and antitrust are criminal law constitutes an offense that is committed by a citizen, and the level of punishment will vary based on the crime. Antitrust on the other hand is a law that controls the actions of a business entity to ensure that the consumers are receiving fair treatment. Both of these statutes have the ability to be tried either at the state or federal level. These laws have an enormous impact on health care in the 21st century as it demonstrates that the government not tolerate misconduct and these laws are in effect to protect the interest of the public. U.S. health care administrators have a duty to oversee the staff and the operation of the facility and is accountable for taking appropriate actions to report any wrongdoing. Administrators are at the forefront of the organization and must monitor the staff and the

The Sherman Antitrust Act is a law that Congress passed to prevent any one company from gaining a monopoly over a market. Additionally, this law helps protect new businesses from being crushed by larger corporations. For example, when the government stepped in to force Pac Bell Telphone Services to separate due to the company having to much control of the market. Now, these anti-trust laws are easily enforced in the present day, however in the early 19th-century lack of technology and payoffs made the implantation of these statutes tough. For example, when a large corporation wanted to buy a smaller one they could simply use a shell corporation to make the purchase without anyone being able to link the acquisition back to the original company.

Through the application of the “Rule of Reason”, a methodology used by courts to interpret US antitrust laws and analyze relevant

Have you been unjustly accused, then punished? So have many companies. When dealing with trusts and monopolies, controversy is sure to arise. This discussion is a result of the benefits, and also the disadvantages of monopolies in our market. With these arguments going on, discussions of the Sherman Antitrust Act in many legal cases, have been whether or not this law is beneficial to our economy and population, or harmful. People have gathered on both sides of this debate looking for the truth behind the effect of the Sherman Antitrust act. To learn how the Sherman Antitrust Act works we must look back to when and why it was created.

Antitrust law in the United States is a collection of federal and state government laws regulating the conduct and organization of business corporations with the intent to promote fair competition in an open-market economy for the benefit of the public. Congress passed the first antitrust statute, the Sherman Antitrust Act, in 1890 in response to the public outrage toward big business. In 1914, Congress passed two additional antitrust laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act. (The Antitrust Laws. Web.)

The United States antitrust legislation is a legislation designed to break up and prevent the formation of new monopolies to increase competition and societal welfare. Thus the United State Antitrust law is a collection of both state and federal government laws enacted to promote fair competition in the economy. The antitrust laws main statutes consist of the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914 and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. In combination these acts have enforced the proper rules and regulations that businesses must conform to today to ensure that there is a healthy competition within the economy to not only the benefit of the consumers who utilize these services and goods but for the health of the businesses who make up our market industries.

Unions have made a monumental impact on today’s working conditions, before unions were established working conditions were poor, unsafe and had no vacations or holidays. It wasn’t until 1886, when Samuel Gompers created the American Federation of Labor that employers could do and treat employees however they pleased. Samuel Gompers set the union movement into motion, which later helped establish the Sherman Anti-trust Act in 1890. The act helped protect individuals from monopolies created by big businesses. The Clayton Act was established in 1914, allowing the workforce to organize and shortly after in, 1932 the union gained power with the creation of the Morris La-Guardia Act (Scalza, 2008). These establishments played a crucial role in helping to

Sherman Act vs. Microsoft The firm that I decided to do research on was Microsoft. For a couple years now Microsoft has been fighting with the court because they have been accused for breaking the Sherman anti-trust act. This act emphasizes on “every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade," and any "monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize”(Federal trade Commission, n.d, para. 2). In a monopolistic industry, companies have the power to make their own decisions on the prices they want their product to be because of the amount of power they have in the market, and that is the type of power the Microsoft holds.

The Sherman Act was passed in 1890, which aimed at preserving competition as the rule of trade. In 1914, congressed passed the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act. Some revisions have been added to the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Act, and the Sherman Act of 1890, the three acts are still at the core of federal antitrust laws in present time. Antitrust laws protect the process of competition for the benefit of customers, making sure that there are strong incentives for businesses to operate effectively, keep prices down, and keep quality up (“The Antitrust Laws,” ftc.gov, February 11, 2016). Healthcare practices that cause inefficiencies in quality of care that result in higher prices are a violation of the Sherman

The Harper Review defined competition as ‘the process by which rival businesses strive to maximise their profits by developing and offering desirable goods and services to consumers on the most favourable terms’. The purpose of competition policy is therefore to protect, enhance and extend competitive conduct. Competition Law aims to combat certain anti-competitive practices that interfere with the efficiency of markets to the detriment of both consumers and other suppliers.

Competition policy The competition policy is used stop a company from running the whole market and allow for healthy competition across the market. The competition policy therefore encourages each business within a particular sector to perform to the best of their ability and for fairness /protection of suppliers. It ensures that one large business can not monopolize the market. Anti-competitive agreement are in place in law.

The Sherman Antitrust Act is the oldest of America's Antitrust laws. It was signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison on July 2, 1890. The purpose of the Sherman Antitrust Act was to preserve free competition in business and made it a crime to take over any part of trade or commerce. It was intended to regulate interstate commerce, and to regain a balance in industry allowing equal opportunities to all businesses.