Anti-trust legislation

By rcerene1

  • The Sherman Act

    The Sherman Antitrust Act is the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts, monopolies, and cartels. The Act's purpose was to promote economic fairness and competitiveness and to regulate interstate commerce. It was proposed, and passed, in 1890 by Ohio Senator John Sherman.

  • The Clayton Act

    This Act is a civil statute (carrying no criminal penalties) that prohibits mergers or acquisitions that are likely to lessen competition. Under this Act, the Government challenges those mergers that are likely to increase prices to consumers. All persons considering a merger or acquisition above a certain size must notify both the Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission. The Act also prohibits other business practices that may harm competition under certain circumstances.

  • The FTC

    It governs interstate commerce, attempting to maintain healthy economic competition in that realm. The act established the Federal Trade Commission, a body that enforces the Federal Trade Commission Act’s stipulations.
    In addition to these three acts, antitrust violators may be found guilty of criminal activity or civil wrongdoing through other laws. Some of the other possible charges include: perjury, obstruction of justice, making false statements to the government, mail fraud, and conspiracy.

  • At&t Antitrust https://www.networkworld.com/article/2287512/u-s--department-of-justice-vs--at-t.html

    Cases that were brought on by this was in the 1970s, At&t company enjoyed a monopoly status and did so unchecked for many years. However, that began to change in 1974 when the Attorney General for the United States filed a suit against the company. It took a total of seven years and four attorney generals to administer the case before it was finally resolved. AT&T was considered a natural monopoly, The FCC were the agency that brought the issues to the DOJ.

  • Microsoft https://www.justice.gov/atr/us-v-microsoft-courts-findings-fact

    Microsoft had committed violations of the first two sections of the Sherman Act. The issue of a monopoly in Operating System and Browser sales for Intel Chip based personal computers. Microsoft had begun to bundle its Operating System, Windows, with the browser, Internet Explorer, basically eliminating the need for other browsers and pricing them out of the market. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the Department of Justice issued his findings in the month of November,

  • NFL Antitrust https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2004/02/10/federal-judge-rules-taxpayer-can-pursue-lawsuit-against-nfl/d8575336-530b-4277-a76d-2b1b0aa62c95/

    a lawsuit accusing the NFL (National Football League) of violating antitrust laws was filed on May 16, 2003. Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune filed the suit, which alleges that the NFL placed uncompetitive restraints on trade that inflated the cost of building new stadiums. The case was rejected due to findings but taxpayers my file other suites.

  • Visa &Mastercard Antitrust https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-american-express-mastercard-and-visa-eliminate-rules-restricting

    Visa and MasterCard began an appeal of an antitrust suit filed against the two credit card companies by the Department of Justice. In the original case, it was decided that a rule preventing banks from issuing credit cards from Visa and MasterCard rivals American Express and Discover was illegal. Visa and MasterCard claimed that the rule did not inhibit competition. The decision on the appeal is forthcoming.

  • Google Antitrust https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2012/08/google-will-pay-225-million-settle-ftc-charges-it-misrepresented

    The FTC charged that for several months in 2011 and 2012, Google placed a certain advertising tracking cookie on the computers of Safari users who visited sites within Google’s DoubleClick advertising network, although Google had previously told these users they would automatically be opted out of such tracking, as a result of the default settings of the Safari browser used in Macs, iPhones and iPads.

  • Facebook https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/07/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions

    The FTC charged Facebook with eight separate privacy-related violations, including that the company made deceptive claims about consumers’ ability to control the privacy of their personal data. One specific count alleged that Facebook allowed users to choose settings that supposedly limited access to their information just to “friends” without adequate disclosures that another setting allowed that same information to be shared with the developers of apps those friends used.