The Federal Trade Commission Act

United States antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws, which regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations, generally to promote fair competition for the benefit of consumers. The four major pieces of legislation known as the Antitrust Laws include: The Sherman Act, The Clayton Antitrust Act, The Federal Trade Commission, and the Celler-Kefauver Act.

Sherman Anti-Trust Act-It was used to ban trusts in business. However, it was used to turn against labor combinations instead of stopping big business owners.

While J.P Morgan had one of the most successful financier he began to create a monopoly within industries. Theodore Roosevelt broke up railroad trusts, including J.P. Morgan's, he wanted to stop the railroad because it was becoming a major monopoly. To ensure that monopolies would not be created in industries Roosevelt proposed the Sherman Antitrust Act which prohibited the formation of monopolies. After the law was passed the act was used to break up J.P. Morgan’s trust, this was known as the Northern Securities Case 1902. Document A is depicting how Roosevelt broke up many trusts, which gave him a nickname of the “trust buster”. The intended audience of the picture would be preferably the citizens, because this picture shows how Roosevelt stuck to his “big stick” and continued to break up trusts like he had promised during the presidential election. While the president focused on trusts, he also had to deal with meat factories which were selling bad meat. “Meat scraps were also found being shoveled into receptacles from dirty floors”. (Doc. B) The purpose of this report was to inform people that the meat was not being handled correctly in factories and as a result it caused people to become ill, the court case 1905 Swift v. US broke up beef trusts and it also pressured railroads into charging them lower than normal rates.The US government attacked the trust as an unlawful monopoly. Soon after the trust was broken up the meat inspection act was passed which stated that it was a crime to adulterate or misbrand meat, and it ensured that meat products were slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions. By new regulations being passed it protected the well being of citizens and got rid of corrupt

The paper will serve as a historical background overview of how the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) came into existence. The paper will also break down the key components for which the FTC covers, such as deceptive advertising, baiting and switching and consumer fraud. There will be examples

The Sherman Antitrust Act was enacted on July 2nd, 1890 which prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace.

    With all that information, let’s talk more about the Clayton Act. Clayton Act (2)is an amendment passed by U.S. Congress in 1914 that provides further clarification and substance to the  Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 on topics

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been in protecting consumer privacy on the internet by targeting deceptive and unfair trade practices since the act was establish in 1914( Halbert & Ingulli, 2012, p. 253). According to Halbert & Ingulli (2012) the FTC banned

Starting in 1902, reporters, referred to as Muckrakers, began publishing stories, which informed the general public of corruption in the business world. President Roosevelt spearheaded the task of breaking up trusts that he considered a danger to the public wellbeing. However, federal regulation of businesses proved difficult because of vague language the Sherman anti-trust act of 1890, although in 1914 the Clayton Anti-trust Act changed regulations: making them much clearer and closing loopholes. During this time, despite the controversy, the federal government created a central banking system with the 1913 Federal Reserve Act and later that year the 16th amendment was established and set restrictions on taxable income of individuals and

There was an increase in technology, factory production, production of steel and oil. This industry produced a lot of wealth for businessmen like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Henry Clay Frick. These trusts were huge economics forces and had the power to manipulate prices. In response to these trusts, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890. The Sherman Antitrust Act prohibited trusts and was based on the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. However the Sherman Antitrust act did little to stop the growth of trusts, but instead was used against labor unions. The act restricted labor unions by cease and desist orders against strikers and their unions. Cease and desist prohibited a person from doing a certain activity, and in this case it meant that laborers could not strike. By not allowing a worker to strike is not letting them achieve their full citizenship rights. The Sherman Antitrust act did more to restrict human rights than ban

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was created in 1914 primarily as a way for the government to “trust bust” or apply regulations ensuring a free marketplace for U.S. consumers and business enterprises. In this regard, the FTC enforces antitrust viola- tions that could hamper consumer interests, as well as federal consumer protection laws against fraud, deception, and unfair business practices. The commission’s primary enforcement mechanism is the Bureau of Consumer Protection, which is divided into seven divisions: (1) enforcement, (2) advertising practices, (3) financial practices, (4) marketing practices, (5) planning and information, (6) consumer and business educa- tion programs, and (7) privacy and identity protection.21 As the federal

The Sherman Act of 1890 created the legislation to declare the existing monopolies illegal and made violation of the Act a felony, essentially deeming the existing monopolies in violation of the law. These two regulations made common practices such as price fixing and market divisions illegal. The Sherman Act would open the doors for individuals and government agencies such as the U.S

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was passed to prohibit trusts, this was the first law passed by U.S. Congress to enforce this. This act was named after Senator John Sherman. Before this act was put into place, many other states had enforced laws very similar to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. These laws were not perfect though, the large corporations had the majority of the economic power. Congress was not pleased with this, thus making the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This act allowed Congress to regulate interstate commerce, outlawing monopolistic practices. If a person were to violate this act, he or she could be imprisoned for a year and fined five-thousand dollars. This law was successfully used to help Theodore Roosevelt during his campaign, “trust-busting”. Also, President Taft used the law to back himself up against the Standard Oil Trust and American Tobacco Company. The Standard Oil trust was when a board of nine trustees was set up to make all of the company decisions , allowing the company to run as a monopoly. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act allowed both presidents to dissolve the trusts that were creating problems. On the other hand, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act had many holes, it did not have exact wording, therefore allowing companies to still control the majority of the producing and still get away with it. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act had substantial success, but was put to rest and replaced with the Clayton Anti-Trust

Antitrust law in the United States is a collection of federal and state government laws regulating the conduct and organization of business corporations with the intent to promote fair competition in an open-market economy for the benefit of the public. Congress passed the first antitrust statute, the Sherman Antitrust Act, in 1890 in response to the public outrage toward big business. In 1914, Congress passed two additional antitrust laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act. (The Antitrust Laws. Web.)

Competition is the cornerstone of capitalism. It creates rivalry among businesses to produce quality goods and services at competitive prices. This gives consumers a better sense of variety when making purchases. Competition in its purest form creates small buyers and sellers none of which are too large to negatively affect the market as a whole. Competitive markets can be dated back to ancient times when merchants competed in foreign trade. In the 19th century economists considered competition as a natural phenomenon in which growth of an operation was fueled by supply and demand in a free market economy. They also believed that supply and demand worked better in a laissez faire type environment. This was possible through freedom to trade, transparent knowledge of market conditions, no government restrictions on trade, and access to buyers and sellers. These conditions prevented any buyer or seller to significantly affect the market price of a single commodity. After the mid 1800’s, limitations to compete became evident during the industrial revolution. Corporations achieved manufacturing capabilities that would surpass their competitors and would allow them to fix prices and squeeze out their rivals. Eventually some businesses became so large that they controlled enough market share to deceptively manipulate prices in their industry. This activity created an atmosphere for President Theodore Roosevelt to launch his famous trust busting campaigns. The era of antitrust

Due to the vague language the Sherman Antitrust Law was written rather vaguely, the Democratic Party passed the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914. The Clayton Antitrust Act prohibited practices that lessened competition or tended to create a monopoly. The framework of the Clayton Antitrust Law banned five unlawful business practices. Price discrimination, Interlocking stockholding, Interlocking directorates, Tying contracts, and Exclusive dealings were the five bad business practices.