The Key Statutes and Laws Covered in the Antitrust Laws - Research Paper Example

The laws are designed to enhance fairly distributed competition between firms while encouraging production and supply of quality products and services at affordable prices. In other words, the laws account for public welfare by ensuring that the public is not exploited. Practices by large corporations may end being unfair to the public, thus the use o antitrust laws to safeguard public interests. The laws are primarily designed to make businesses compete fairly. The laws have successfully contained business practices, further impacting on the organization of the business industry in the United States.

Their formulation and implementation have taken the notion that fair competition is beneficial to the economy, businesses, consumers and all stakeholders in the industry (Areeda & Hovenkamp 26-35). The laws impose several types of restraint of trade and monopolization. These restrictions are divided into four main parts including agreements between competitors, contract on deals between sellers and buyers, the introduction or maintenance of monopoly powers and merging. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 presents the basis for antitrust law and several countries have modeled their own statutes based on this law.

Following significant weaknesses that were discovered during the amendment of the law, other provisions were added. The Law on Antitrust has origins based on the cry against trusts, which were late-nineteenth-century corporate monopolies that dominated the U.S. manufacturing and mining. These trusts have their basis and name from business incorporation called trusteeship, which had lost control of industries by transferring stock in exchange for trust certificates. It is found that the practice grew out of necessity.

Over the years, markets experienced significant expansion and production growth, but with demand exceeding total output resulted in a sharpened competition.