StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Anti Trust Legislation - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
In the paper “The Anti Trust Legislation” the author discusses the regulation of trade and commerce by preventing unlawful restraints, with the primary goal of safeguarding public welfare by ensuring that consumer demands will be met by the manufacture and sale of goods at reasonable prices…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97% of users find it useful
The Anti Trust Legislation
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Anti Trust Legislation"

This practice has come to an end by the enacting and executing this act. In the 20th century, President Theodore Roosevelt and his successor President William Howard Taft responded to public criticism over the rapid merger of industries by pursuing more vigorous legal action, and steady prosecution. This brought the downfall of monopoly in the manufacturing resulting in price fall. The Clayton law in 1914 declared price discrimination, tying and exclusive dealing contracts, corporate mergers, and interlocking directorates as illegal but not criminal.

The Robinson-Patman Act, passed by US congress in 1936 explicitly forbade forms of price discrimination, in order to protect small producers from extinction due to competition. From 1937 to 1940 Roosevelt's effort to cope with economic decline brought federal antitrust enforcement back. After that Congress added its last piece of important legislation in 1950 with the Celler-Kefauver anti-merger act. This made the businesses unable to target the assets of the rivals also in addition to the previous forbidding of anti-competitive stock purchases.

A loophole was plugged. In a decisive departure from the previous decade's rulings, the Court abandoned its hostility towards efficiency. It was in the early 1980s in the case of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) (United States v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., the Justice Department settled claims that AT&T had impeded competition in long-distance telephone service and telecommunications equipment. The result was the largest division in history as a federal court severed the Bell System's operating companies and manufacturing arm (Western Electric) from AT&T and thus transforming the nation's telephone services.

But on the contrary, the administration of President Ronald Reagan made mergers of companies into conglomerates and on the other hand, looked on favorably. As a result, the years 1984 and 1985 produced the greatest increase in corporate acquisitions in the nation's history. But After that, the administration of President George Bush adopted a slightly more activist approach, which reflected in joint guidelines on mergers issued in 1992 by the FTC and the Justice Department. Next under President Clinton, the most important antitrust action involved a federal probe of the computer software giant Microsoft Corporation.

In its potential for far-reaching action, this can be termed as the biggest antitrust case since those involving AT&T and IBM. When the past cases were of regarding the monopoly of the companies due to mergers and acquisitions, the present case was a clear cut case of the fight of incompetence over competency. Competitors complained that Microsoft used illegal arrangements with buyers to ensure that its disk operating system would be installed in nearly 80 percent of the world's computers.

Taking the threat of Federal suit into consideration in mid-1994, Microsoft entered a consent decree designed to increase competitors' access to the market. All the parties involved the original complainants, Micro-soft, and government-expressed relative satisfaction. But in early 1995, a federal judge rejected the agreement, citing evidence of other monopolistic practices by Microsoft. Microsoft was sued in 1998 in the court of District of Columbia for its monopoly practices by combining windows operating system and IE (internet explorer) web browser.

The district court not taking into consideration the other companies' inability in combining operating system and web browser ordered a split it Microsoft into two entities, of which one has to manufacture the OS and the 2nd to produce the web browser along with other software. But when Microsoft appealed it in Supreme Court it referred the case to the federal appeals court. There it was settled that Microsoft should share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and must appoint a panel of three people who will have full access to Microsoft's systems, records, and source code for five years in order to ensure compliance.

This episode is termed as unjustified by many critics as there was no case of mergers, acquisitions, and the situation of monopoly arisen due to the incompetence of the competitor companies. The only allegation that can be considered fair under antitrust law is that the Micro Soft threatened its customers of revoking the license if they use the products of its competitors. But it was not proved. Many criticize that the case was formed due to the collusion of the competitors of Microsoft with US Government agencies.

This can be termed as one and only one case that was against the letter and spirit of the antitrust act that was enacted for the common good of people.

Read More
Tags
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(The Anti Trust Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words, n.d.)
The Anti Trust Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. https://studentshare.org/law/1513753-evaluating-antitrust-legislation
(The Anti Trust Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
The Anti Trust Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/law/1513753-evaluating-antitrust-legislation.
“The Anti Trust Legislation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”. https://studentshare.org/law/1513753-evaluating-antitrust-legislation.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Anti Trust Legislation

Principles of Economics

In conclusion, Microsoft Corporation has been facing the anti- trust legislation for a couple of years now.... A Situation in the Past 50 years in which the Government Used Anti-Trust Policies to Stop a Monopoly from Occurring The best example of such a situation is the Microsoft Corporation case that is regarded as the most recent situation where the anti- trust law has been applied accordingly.... The government points out that Microsoft has undertaken in actions to promote its Windows monopoly which violates the anti- trust laws....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Evaluating Anit Trust Legisiation

This paper is aimed at analyzing if the implementation of the anti-trust law is fair and just.... This paper is aimed at analyzing if the implementation of the anti-trust law is fair and just.... Antitrust legislation law was established in the United States to control the increasing number of companies who have been merging for the purpose of increasing their products' prices and/or lowering the outputs.... om/other/business/antitrust-legislation-ebf-01....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The anti-trust legislation of the early 20th century was one of the first serious attempts at reducing domestic corruption.... The Securities Exchange Act of 1934, mail and wire fraud legislation, and Internal Revenue codes have all been designed to reduce the opportunity for a business to gain an unfair competitive advantage.... The FCPA also reasserted the ideals of fair trade and anti-trust policies by curtailing the unfair practices that might place a corporation in an unfairly advantageous position over a competitor through a corrupt practice....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Powerful Progressives in the Presidency

In what would be called a "green" law today, Roosevelt-initiated legislation also extended to conservation of natural resources.... He used the Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 to do what no one before him had been able to accomplish: attacking the huge Northern Securities Company, which held a monopoly over railroads in the northwest....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Equity and trust law

??1 Thus, while eform proposals are in the process of being finalized into legislation, it has been the relevant case law which has served as a guide in order to determine whether or not an organization can qualify for charitable status.... The Charities Bill of 19933 also has the provision whereby, when a charitable trust fails due to difficulties in literal compliance with the intention of a testator, the doctrine of CyPress can be applied as a flexible policy option to prevent a trust resulting to its donors or the crown....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Business argument and ethics

This essay examines Microsoft's business practices and argues that the company has an unfair market advantage in violation of federal anti-trust laws.... Since Adam Smith wrote his now famous book, The Wealth of Nations, public policy debates have focused on the functioning of markets and the role that government should play in regulating them....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

The History Of Industrialization

The Interstate Commerce Act was to eliminate discrimination against small shippers by railroads while the anti-trust Law was to curb monopolies.... government to pass legislation such as the Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 and the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 to curb such malpractices and corruption....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Success of Anti-discrimination Legislation

The paper "The Success of Anti-discrimination legislation" states that specific issue is supported by Collela et al.... Moreover, because the reference to the legislation that has been developed for the protection of the employment rights of people belonging in minority ethnic groups is necessary, a specific legal framework has been chosen as an indicative example of current legislative efforts made towards the protection of the rights of people belonging in minority ethnic groups in the workplace; the legal framework chosen is that of the UK....
7 Pages (1750 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us