Sherman Antitrust Act

Examples of Sherman Antitrust Act in the following topics:

• Rockefeller and the Oil Industry

  • In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act — the source of all American anti-monopoly laws.
  • The Standard Oil group quickly attracted attention from antitrust authorities leading to a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General David K.
  • In 1909, the US Department of Justice sued Standard under federal anti-trust law, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, for sustaining a monopoly and restraining interstate commerce.
  • On May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court upheld the lower court judgment and declared the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

• Robber Barons and the Captains of Industry

  • The political parties got the message: In 1888, both Republicans and Democrats put an antitrust plank in their platforms.
  • The result was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Senator John Sherman, of Ohio.
  • The purpose of the Sherman Antitrust Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses.
  • Senator Sherman and other sponsors declared that the act had roots in a common-law policy that frowned on monopolies.
  • Nevertheless, passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act did not end the public clamor; 15 years passed before a national administration began to enforce the act, when President Theodore Roosevelt, known as "the Trustbuster," sent his attorney general after the Northern Securities Corporation, a transportation holding company.

• Federal Efforts to Control Monopoly

  • The Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890, declared that no person or business could monopolize trade or could combine or conspire with someone else to restrict trade.
  • In 1914, Congress passed two more laws designed to bolster the Sherman Antitrust Act: the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
  • The Clayton Antitrust Act defined more clearly what constituted illegal restraint of trade.
  • The government has continued to pursue antitrust prosecutions since World War II.
  • The Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department watch for potential monopolies or act to prevent mergers that threaten to reduce competition so severely that consumers could suffer.

• From Competition to Consolidation

  • The consequence was federal legislation: the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 established the first federal administrative agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission.
  • The political parties got the message: In 1888, both Republicans and Democrats put an antitrust plank in their platforms.
  • The result was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Senator John Sherman, of Ohio.
  • Senator Sherman and other sponsors declared that the act had roots in a common-law policy that frowned on monopolies.
  • Nevertheless, passage of the Sherman Act did not end the public clamor, because fifteen years passed before a national administration began to enforce the act, when President Theodore Roosevelt—"the Trustbuster"sent his attorney general after the Northern Securities Corporation, a transportation holding company.

• Regulation

  • Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act).
  • The Sherman Antitrust Act is a landmark federal statute in the history of U.S. antitrust law passed by Congress in 1890.
  • "Trust" in relation to the Sherman Act refers to a type of contract that combines several large businesses for monopolistic purposes (to exert complete control over a market), though the act addresses monopolistic practices even if they have nothing to do with this specific legal arrangement.
  • President Theodore Roosevelt sued 45 companies under the Sherman Act, and William Howard Taft sued 75.
  • In 1911, the Supreme Court agreed that in recent years (1900–1904) Standard had violated the Sherman Act.

• Antitrust Laws

  • This process, though long and arduous, was enabled by the Sherman Act and Federal Trade Commission Act and substantially improved the competitive nature of the computer industry.
  • United States (U.S.) - In the U.S., antitrust policy finds its roots in 1890 with the Sherman Antitrust Act.
  • The Sherman Act dealt with avoiding or limiting the power of trusts, or essentially the creation of price-controlling cartels.
  • This act was expanded upon in 1914, with two more competitive laws: The Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
  • Both of these acts sought to organize a governmental body equipped to protect consumers from unfair competitive practices.

• Republican Reform Under Harrison

  • Although some U.S. civil service jobs had been classified under the Pendleton Act by previous administrations, Harrison spent much of his first months in office deciding on political appointments.
  • Harrison quickly saw the enactment of the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890, a cause he had championed while in Congress.
  • In addition to providing pensions to disabled Civil War veterans, regardless of the cause of their disability, the act depleted some of the troublesome federal budget surplus.
  • The Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited business combinations that restricted trade, and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the U.S. government to mint silver were both authored by Senator John Sherman.
  • The 51st Congress also was responsible for passing the Land Revision Act of 1891, which created the national forests.

• Monopolies, Mergers, and Restructuring

  • Such concerns gave rise to two major laws aimed at taking apart or preventing monopolies: the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.
  • In general, government antitrust officials see a threat of monopoly power when a company gains control of 30 percent of the market for a commodity or service.
  • While antitrust laws may have increased competition, they have not kept U.S. companies from getting bigger.
  • That represented one of the largest divestitures ever mandated by antitrust agencies.
  • But federal antitrust agencies have given their blessings to some joint ventures they believe will yield benefits.

• Anti-Trust Laws

  • Wilson sought to encourage competition and curb trusts by using the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the Clayton Antitrust Act.
  • Wilson also attempted to curtail child labor with the Keating-Owen Act.
  • The Federal Trade Commission effectively restricted unfair trade practices and enforced the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act.
  • The Clayton Antitrust Act was a law that specified and outlined "unfair and illegal" certain business practices such as price discrimination, agreements prohibiting retailers from handling other companies' products, and agreements to control other companies.
  • Rather than the piecemeal success of Roosevelt and Taft in targeting certain trusts and monopolies in lengthy lawsuits, the Clayton Antitrust Act effectively defined unfair business practices and created a common code of sanctioned business activity.

• Regulation and Antitrust Policy

  • Antitrust laws are a form of marketplace regulation intended to prohibit monopolization and unfair business practices.
  • Many countries, including most of the Western world, have antitrust laws of some form.
  • For example, the European Union has provisions under the Treaty of Rome to maintain fair competition, as does Australia under its Trade Practices Act of 1974.
  • As a result of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, larger companies attempting to merge must first notify the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division prior to consummating a merger.
  • Newspapers run by joint operating agreements are also allowed limited antitrust immunity under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970.