ANTITRUST VIOLATIONS

Antitrust Violations

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Abstract

Antitrust law is the law that provides protection against competition, and it is possibly the least understood law of all. This paper offers an explanation and overview of the antitrust laws' essential principals, together with explanation on certain persistent themes and current developments in the ample case law through which the courts have fought back to provide meaning and practical effect to the violations of antitrust.

Antitrust Violations

I.Introduction

In a broad context, antitrust laws try to find ways to encourage fair competition and to protect wronged competitor and consumers businesses from anti-competitive practices of business, including practices embarked on in effort to destabilize competitive profit-making behavior in a line of commerce or given market. The laws of antitrust thus prohibit the wrongful preservation or acquisition of monopoly supremacy, the monopoly power abuse to institute a new monopoly, and rigorous trade restraints (that is, practices of business that undertake by two or more companies that improperly suppress or stifle “market competition on the basis of merits” in a particular market). These laws also oversee planned mergers and acquisitions that are adequately large to add up to a threat to rivalry, and they take in hand commercial practices that can cause an uncertain threat to competition on the merits in an appropriately defined antitrust marketplace.

II.Antitrust Violations

Competition is considered beneficial for business and business environment, as in a competitive market, companies offer higher quality products at lower prices to be successful or to gain market share. On the other hand, businesses perhaps get involve in violation of antitrust laws that is a white collar crime as it has a bad effect on competition, can damage economy and can increase prices. Hence, antitrust laws are formed to protect consumer and competitors from unfair competition and its consequences, these laws prohibits: conspiracies, combinations and contracts in trade restraint; mergers and acquisitions that tend to significantly reduce competition; monopolization offenses; and methods of unfair competition, as well as unfair practices and acts in the conduct of commerce and trade.1

Competition serves as an effective mean for businesses to identify ways to improve product quality, charge lower price, and to increase efficiency. Business that can offer the highest product quality at the reduced costs will succeed in a competitive environment. The final enhanced quality beneficiary at the lowest price is referred to the consuming public. In a vigorous competitive market, customers have the variety products and services choice at the reduced prices.

When companies limit competition through engaging in other anticompetitive activity or abusing monopoly power, merging to monopoly, allocating markets, agreeing to fix prices, the competition benefits (increased quality of product/ service and lowest price) are grinded down and, finally vanish.

The antitrust laws lay down general propositions series that acts as the “marketplace economics' charter principles” in the US, which are summarized below:

First is the monopolization which is offensive to attain monopoly through business practices to destroy business competition and undermine business rivals. If for instance, computer software is ...