What is an antitrust law?
Antitrust laws seek to promote fair competition on the merits and to protect consumers and businesses from anti-competitive business practices. Antitrust policy in the United States is based on the proposition that competition among companies results in lower prices, better products, and greater consumer choice. The antitrust laws seek to promote such competition by preserving the ability of consumers to take their business elsewhere when a particular company does not meet their desires. Consumer choice, in turn, puts the onus on businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices low, and quality up. The antitrust laws have two basic prohibitions: (1) competing companies cannot agree among themselves to reduce competition in ways that hurt consumers, and (2) a single company cannot monopolize or attempt to monopolize an industry through coercive or predatory practices.
