Federal antitrust statutes
1. sherman anti-trust act
2. clayton act
3. federal trade commission act
4. robinson patman act
sherman anti-trust act
authorized government to dissolve trusts...declared them illegal
Tests applied for sherman antitrust:
Per se violations-presumed to be unlawful
Rule of reason-balances harm to competition with justifications
Per se violations
-Horizontal Price-Fixing
1. Direct agreements regulating price
2. Agreements limiting quantity
-Vertical price fixing
Agreement b/w supplier + dealer that fixes the minimum resale price
Horizontal divisions of markets
agreements among competitors to divide sales territories (basically, so they dont compete)...ILLEGAL
Boycotts
illegal if used to force another party to pay higher prices
Tie-in sales
must buy a second product with first one...illegal if they harm competition
Exclusive dealing agreements
requires buyers to buy exclusively from a particular seller
Tying agreements
Tying agreements that my substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly are illegal
Robinson-Patman act
see slides