February 2, 2022
Antitrust Laws in the U.S. - An Overview
For over one hundred years, the United States has drafted and ratified a collection of laws, designed to discourage unfair competition and protect consumers from unreasonable restraints on trade. Originally, antitrust statutes were created as a check on the seemingly endless growth that massive corporate trusts (e.g., railroads, sugar, etc.) were experiencing at the end of the nineteenth century. Simultaneously, as the catalog of antitrust laws developed, the need for federal and state actors designated to enforce them grew. This article aims to provide a brief rundown of major antitrust legislation and its purpose, enforcers, and penalties.
