a law passed in 1890 in the United States to reduce anticompetitive behavior; Section 1 makes price fixing illegal, and Section 2 makes attempts to monopolize illegal.
A federal act which established as national policy the concept of a competitive marketing system by prohibiting companies from attempting to (1) monopolize any part of trade or commerce or (2) engage in contracts, combinations, or conspiracies in restraint of trade. The Act applies to all companies engaged in interstate commerce and to all companies engaged in foreign commerce. See also antitrust laws.
This earliest federal antimonopoly statute attempted to prohibit both business behavior and structures intended to produce a monopoly. More than a decade passed before the law met with major success in the courtroom.
passed in 1890 to break up trusts and monopolies, it was rarely enforced except against labor unions and most of its power was stripped away by the Supreme Court, but it began federal attempts to prevent unfair, anti-competitive business practices.
the basic Federal antitrust law, it contains broad prohibitions of conduct in unreasonable restraint of trade and monopolization.
The 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, the nation's first antitrust act, made any concentration (monopoly) in restraint of trade illegal. This already weak law was emasculated when the Supreme Court ruled in "U.S. v. E. C. Knight" (1895) that manufacturing was excluded from the antitrust law. The Sherman Act was often used to break up labor unions.
An antitrust law from which insurance is exempted to the extent that it is regulated by state law.
15 U.S.C., Sec. 107, as amended (1976), provides in general, that it is illegal to conspire by contract or otherwise, to restrain trade. Franchisee associations must be carefully monitored and franchise agreements drafted (except under certain case law exceptions), to avoid exclusive allocation of continents or fixing prices. As it affects franchising, the Sherman Act is applied to activities within a single state, whereas the Robinson-Patman Act can apply only to matters involved in two or more states (interstate commerce). The basic antitrust statutes have evolved since 1890 and each body of law has been enlarged and modified by the subsequent acts; some of which you will find in this directory. There are other anti-trust acts, notably the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Act and the state antitrust laws and "Little" FTC acts. In order to avoid antitrust problems, seek adequate legal counsel.
The Sherman Antitrust Act, formally known as the Act of July 2, 1890, ch. 647, 26 Stat. 209, as amended, codified at through , was the first United States federal government action to limit monopolies, and is the oldest of all U.S. antitrust laws. It is also known simply as the Sherman Act, as it was formally designated by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act in 1976.