Passed by Congress to strengthen the Sherman Act and clarify the rule of reason, the act outlawed specific monopolistic behaviors such as tying contracts, price discrimination, and unlimited mergers.

A federal act which forbids certain actions believed to lead to monopolies, including (1) charging different prices to different purchasers of the same product without justifying the price difference and (2) giving a distributor the right to sell a product only if the distributor agrees not to sell competitors' products. The Clayton Act applies to insurance companies only to the extent that state laws do not regulate such activities. See also antitrust laws.

A federal antitrust statute passed in 1914 as a supplement to the Sherman Act. The Clayton Act is aimed at specific forms of anticompetitive conduct. For example, Section 3 of the Clayton Act prohibits tying (see "Tying" below) and exclusive dealing arrangements. Section 7 of the Act prohibits potentially anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions.

The Clayton Act regulates general practices that potentially may be detrimental to fair competition. Some of these general practices regulated by the Clayton Act are: price discrimination; exclusive or tying agreements, mergers and acquisitions in violation of conncentration ratios; and predatory pricing.

gives a limited exemption to the Sherman Act, allowing nonstock cooperatives to operate without being considered combinations in restraint of trade merely because of organizational structure; allows a plaintiff in an antitrust suit to recover treble damages. Commodities Speculation: the act of incurring purchase or sale obligations in the futures market that exceed the cooperative's needs to hedge against unfavorable price fluctuations.