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

When Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated in 1913, he stated in his address that, “We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon” (First Inaugural Address, online). He did just that when he passed the Clayton Antitrust Act in October 1914. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890, but it was very vague in the way it described monopolies (Clayton Antitrust Act, online). Big business took advantage of the loopholes, which diminished competition (Clayton Antitrust Act, online). Although Roosevelt and Taft successfully busted about 150 trusts, big businesses continued to grow and our entire economic system remained in the hands of a few men (Taft Biography, online; T. Roosevelt – Section 8, online; Clayton Antitrust, online). Wilson requested Congress to modify the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Clayton Antitrust Act was born (Clayton Antitrust, online). It is “An Act To supplement existing laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes” (HR 15657, online). The Sherman Act simply declared monopolies illegal, while the Clayton Act declared activities linked with monopolies to be illegal (Clayton Antitrust Act, online). Such activities include mergers and acquisitions that are intended “substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly” (HR 15657, online). The Federal Trade Commission Act, passed about a month before the Clayton Act, banned

United States antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws, which regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations, generally to promote fair competition for the benefit of consumers. The four major pieces of legislation known as the Antitrust Laws include: The Sherman Act, The Clayton Antitrust Act, The Federal Trade Commission, and the Celler-Kefauver Act.

A) There were 4 particular Antitrust Laws that were enacted with the primary purpose of protecting consumers, striving to achieve fair competition in the market place, and to achieve and allocate efficiency. The 4 Antitrust Laws that are major pieces of legislation are;

Antitrust laws are federal and state government laws that regulate the conduct and organization or businesses. This helps promote fair competition for consumers. There are four main areas involving the

Legally, the issue has been brought up that alterations and the deceptive nature of an edited photo can potentially violate consumer protection laws in the US, specifically the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”) and the Lanham Act. The FTC Act of 1914 covers methods of unfair competition, and it was changed in 1938 to include “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” declaring that unfair or deceptive methods of competition that affect commerce are unlawful. Little change or clarification has been made to its wording since 1964, making it difficult to keep up with growing technology (Brown 94) Unfortunately, a lot of the wording in the document assumes that speech is the key offender in deception rather than the image. However, the United

Born in 1823, John Sherman was going to change how the United States economy worked. His name is part of a very important act; the Sherman Antitrust Act. this disbanded all monopolized corporations and said price discrimination and interlocking doctorates are prohibited. Though this act was very crucial, many people took advantage. As a result of this another act had to be passed. A legislation that could strengthen the Sherman Act and take down all the trust. An act that could would not take the government time and money to trust bust the fraud businesses, but to take the responsibility of each individual in a business. Although pricing fixing and exclusive dealings were addressed in the Sherman Act, there needed to be another antitrust act to establish and extend the unfair business practices during the 19 century era.

The antitrust laws are the basis of this national policy. These laws, enforced by both the federal and state governments, require companies to compete in the marketplace. The Sherman Act, the first federal "antitrust law," was enacted in 1890, at a time when there was enormous concern about "trusts" -- combinations of companies that were able to control entire industries. Since then, other laws have been enacted to supplement the Sherman Act, including the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act (1914). With some revisions, these laws still are in effect today. They have the same basic objective: making sure there are strong economic incentives for businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices down, and keep quality up.

(4) Absolute antitrust immunity for ocean common carriers engaging in any activities described in (1), (2), or (3), above.

Michigan has adopted the Antitrust Reform Act. Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 445.774a. The Act allows employers to obtain agreements , protecting their reasonable competitive business interests by prohibiting employment with competitors. Id. But the agreement must be reasonable “as to its duration, geographical area, and the type of employment or line of business.”Id. To be reasonable, a restrictive covenant must “‘protect against the employee’s gaining some unfair advantage in competition with the employer, but not prohibit the employee from using general knowledge or skill.’” Coates v. Bastian Brothers, Inc, 276 Mich. App. 498, 741 N.W.2d 539  (2007) If the agreement is found to be unreasonable, a court may “limit the agreement to

Events that led to the creation of the FTC. July 2, 1890, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first law passed by congress to prevent monopolistic business practices. Named after Senator John Sherman of Ohio, he had this law to pass the senate with a unanimous vote of 51-1 and the House with a vote of 242-0. President Harrison signed it into law in 1890. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act authorized government to make it illegal to make a “restraint of trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations”. Those that did not abide by this law resulted in a $5,000 fine and a year in prison. “The Sherman Act was designed to reestablish competition but was loosely worded and unsuccessful to define terms as “trust,” “combination,” “conspiracy,” and “monopoly” (www.ourdocuments.gov, 2013)”. Because of this “loosely worded” act, the Supreme Court prevented the federal government from using the act for many years up until President Theodore Roosevelt came along with his “trust-busting” campaigns. In 1904 the Supreme Court finally supported the government in its suit for “termination of the Northern Securities Company and the act was further employed by President Taft in 1911 against the

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.)

Furthermore, in Standard Oil Co., the Supreme Court stated that “The term "monopoly,"… as used in the Sherman Act was intended to cover such monopolies or attempts to monopolize as were known to exist in this country; those which were defined as illegal at common law by the States, when applied to intrastate commerce.” The Supreme Court went on to further state that “the principles of the common law applied to interstate as well as to intrastate commerce.”

Similarly, anti-competition issues have been the primary concern of national competition authorities, and they have been involved in antitrust restrictions on firms (Commission of the European Communities 2004). Traditionally, competition authorities have focused on how to detect anti-competitive activities of firms such as price fixing, bid rigging, and other forms of collusion. Nicklisch (2012) reported that the enforcement of antitrust legislation has been regarded as an important issue in the European Union. Likewise, the US Justice Department accused nine auto parts makers (FBI 2013). Anti-competitive attempts of firms are subject to such criminal prosecution as they can have enormous negative effect in the economy and can last for more

They have obtained civil consent decrees that will contribute to lower prices and improved quality for such products. In addition, they have also worked with businesses to restructure mergers in order to protect competition in the American marketplace.