A. Collectively there are four major pieces of legislation that make us the Antitrust Laws: The Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, the Federal Trade Commission act of 1914 and the Celler- Kefauver Act of 1950. The purpose of these acts and laws is to regulate trade and commerce by preventing unlawful restrictions, price fixing and monopolies; their goal is to promote competition and to encourage the production of quality goods and serves at reasonable prices while safeguarding the public welfare, while ensuring consumer demand is met via the production and sale of those goods at reasonably low prices. Enforcement of the antitrust laws depends largely on two agencies: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of …show more content…
A Monopoly refers to a market where-by there is one or limited suppliers of a given commodity to the market.
b. An Oligopoly refers to a market structure where-by the suppliers have formed some form of cartel and are acting in unison. In such a case the suppliers have the power to determine the price of the commodity and may set any price.
This is where industry regulations come. The regulations discourages the monopolies and oligopolies from charging unfair prices for their products.
C. Primarily there are two federal and one state regulatory commissions that govern industrial regulations:
a. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commissions (FERC) formally known as the Federal Power Commission (FPC) established in 1920 to regulate hydropower dams. Through successive legislation and legal proceedings. The role of the FERC expanded the regulation to include jurisdiction over state-to-state electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing, and oil pipeline rates. It also reviews and approves liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, pipelines, and non-federal hydropower projects. The FERC is an independent federal regulatory agency. ("AllGov -
In economics, a monopoly is a single seller. In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power to charge high prices.[4] Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a monopoly. A small business may still have the power to raise prices in a small industry (or market).[5]
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC (1930) is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of natural gas, electricity, oil pipelines, and water-powered sites. FERC also reviews proposals to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines as well as licensing hydro power projects.(2)
1) An Oligopolistic market structure is a structure where very few large businesses sell a particular standard Good or differentiated Good, and to whose market entry proves difficult. This in turn, gives little control over product pricing because of mutual interdependence (with the exception of collusion among businesses) creating a non-price competition meaning they are the ‘price setters’. A good rule to help classify an
There are three primary federal and state regulatory commissions that govern industrial regulation. They include the Federal Power Commission, the Federal Energy Regulation Commission, and the Natural Gas Act. The Federal Power Commission, which was created in 1930, allowed cabinet members to coordinate federal hydropower dams and navigable waters that the federal government owned. Years later, the FPC became The Federal Energy Regulation Commission. The FERC oversee the transmission of liquefied natural gas, while still overseeing electricity and hydroelectric projects. The Federal Energy Regulation Commission possess control over electricity, natural gas pricing, and oil pipeline and non-federal hydropower projects. It is made up of five commissioners that are approved by the President with approval from the Senate. In 1938, the Natural Gas Act
During the Progressive Era, Regulatory Agencies fail to provide and do their work, legislation ere made with the purpose for the common good of the citizen that suffer from the big corporation abuse, most of the corporation state strict rule but never got to accomplish them or the personal was too much expensive. The Supreme Court during the United State v Knight Company state diminished the effectiveness of the Sherman Anti-Trust act by ruling that manufacturing was not an interstate commerce (Document 5). The Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency of the United State government, established in by the Federal Trade Commission Act. Its principal mission was the promotion of consumer protection and the elimination/prevention of anti-competitive
The restraint against monopolies help
Oligopoly is defined as a market structure in which there are a few major firms dominating the market in an industry. One of the defining factors is that each firm explicitly feeds off of the competitors' moves and their potential responses in regard to setting prices, launching new products, etc. Under this model there is a level of implied cooperation. The firms understand that it is in their own best interests to maintain a stable price. If one of the firms subsequently lowers their prices, their competitors will do the same and knock out any advantage the original firm was hoping to gain with lower prices. However, if they raise their prices, the competitors may not do the same and can keep their prices fixed which will allow them to gain more market share.
When consumers decide to purchase a product or service a car, a new refrigerator, or prescription drugs, the goal of the antitrust laws is to make sure their choices are not restricted unreasonably. Consumer choice is a powerful incentive for the sellers of any products to keep their prices low and their quality high. When the antitrust laws are vigorously enforced, businesses must respond to what consumers want. A business that ignores consumer wishes, by refusing either to keep prices competitive or to offer
In a monopoly, a single company owns the market of a certain product. Some characteristics of a monopoly are that it only has one seller, is a
A market is defined as an institution that brings together buyers (demanders) and sellers (suppliers) of a particular good or service. A Market structure is the relationship among the buyers and sellers of a market and how prices are determined through outside influences. There are four different types of market structures. Two on opposite extremes, and two comfortably in the middle. On one end is perfect competition, which acts as a starting point in price and output determination. Pure competition is when a large number of firms sell a standardized product, entry and exit is very easy, and an individual firm cannot control the price. On the other extreme end is Pure monopoly. A monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition, which will often allow one seller to control the market. A Pure monopoly is essentially the same thing, but also includes near impossible entry and no substitute goods. Two more common market structures are monopolistic competition and oligopoly. Monopolistic competition has a large number of sellers producing different products, while an oligopoly has only a few number of sellers producing similar products. All in all pure competition, pure monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly are all unique market structures with differing characteristics, but have one main goal, profit maximization.
The administrative body established by the Fair Competition Act is the Fair Trading Commission(FTC) which is appointed by the government, has power to summon and examine documents, administer oaths and to take legal action in the Supreme Court against any business or individual found guilty of uncompetitive practices (Harinott
A monopoly is the exclusive possession or control of the supply or the trade of a commodity or a service. An example of a monopoly is when the U.S markets were
Oligopoly is a market structure where there are a few firms producing all or most of the market supply of a particular good or service and whose decisions about the industry's output can affect competitors. Examples of oligopolistic structures are supermarket, banking industry and pharmaceutical industry.
It's called an oligopoly. It's not a regular market... It's a market in which they control the prices and they've been doing it for years.
Oligopoly came from the Greek words where “oligos” means few and “polein” means to sell. Oligopolistic competition is a kind of imperfect competition where only a few firms make up the entire industry, which mean the majority of market share is owned by a small number of large firms, but never can be one. It can be said as a form of market structure which falls between perfect competition market and monopolistic market. (Reynolds, nd)