Antitrust laws ensures unlawful mergers and business practices in general terms. These laws leaves courts to decide which ones are illegal based on the facts of each case. Courts have applied the antitrust laws to changing markets, for over 100 years, the antitrust laws have had the same basic goals: protect the process of competition for the benefit of consumers, strong motivations for businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices down, and keep quality up. Congress passed the first anti trust laws, The Sherman Act in 1890. In 1914, congress passed two anti trust laws, the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act. The Sherman Act outlaws: agreement to fix prices between competitors and allocate consumers. This law also makes it …show more content…
Companies must compete for customers through quality, innovation, improvements, antitrust laws in the United States have evolved along with the market, watchfully protecting against monopolies and disruptions and flow of competition. Monopolies: this market structure has a single seller with no close alternates. The existence of barriers to entry is also very important to the existence of monopoly. A single seller in a market where entry is easy would have very little market power. The absence of close alternates is essential if the single seller is to have much market power. Oligopolies: this market structure is dominated by a few firms. This market is evident in a multitude of markets. In addition companies in Oligopolies structures are considered competitors within the specific market. Some examples of Oligopolies include: cable television services, airline industry, oil and gas, auto industry, and cellular phone services. The presence of barriers to entry is also very important to the existence of monopoly and Oligopolies structures because they are pertinent in every kind of competition case. Entry barriers can delay, reduce, or entirely avoid the market’s usual mechanism for checking market power. Some barriers of entry