Antitrust law - Definition and Overview

Antitrust is also the name for a movie, see Antitrust (movie)

Antitrust or competition laws legislate against trade practices that undermine competitiveness or are considered to be unfair. The term antitrust derives from the U.S. law that was originally formulated to combat business trusts - now commonly known as cartels.

Criticism of antitrust laws

Nobel economist Milton Friedman believes says that antitrust laws "do far more harm than good" and that therefore they should not exist. Milton Friedman is an advocate of free markets.

Divisions

Most antitrust activity can be classified in the following areas:

• Bid rigging
• Monopolization and oligopolization
• Price fixing
• Tying
• Vendor lock-in

Laws

Alabama became the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law on February 23, 1883.

Most free-market countries have an antitrust law of one form or another. The European Union has its own competition law.

See also

• AFL-NFL Merger
• Clayton Antitrust Act
• Commissioner Andrew L. Harris
• Common law
• Corporate Governance
• Corporatism
• Corporatocracy
• Duopoly
• Federal Trade Commission Act
• Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act
• History of the United States (1865-1918)
• Limit Price
• List of economics topics
• Microsoft antitrust case
• Monopoly
• Monopsony
• President William McKinley
• President Theodore Roosevelt
• Robinson-Patman Act
• Senator John Sherman
• Sherman Antitrust Act
• State law
• Trust
• Trust-busting
• U.S. Industrial Commission of 1898
• United States v. E. C. Knight Co.

External links

• Antitrust Law (http://ww3.definitions-legal.com:8567/antitrust-law.htm) -- Articles & Definitions
• http://www.wa.gov/ago/trust
• An article called Antitrust Laws Should Be Abolished (http://www.quebecoislibre.org/000219-13.htm)
• The Business Community's Suicidal Impulse by Milton Friedman (http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v21n2/friedman.html) A criticism of antitrust laws and cases by the Nobel economist