Antitrust Laws: Promoting Competition and Free Markets
Critically important but commonly misunderstood, antitrust laws are meant to promote competition and protect consumers. Here’s everything you need to know.
America's antitrust laws promote competition and benefit consumers.
Antitrust laws ensure competition in a free and open market economy, which is the foundation of any vibrant economy. And healthy competition among sellers in an open marketplace gives consumers the benefits of lower prices, higher quality products and services, more choices, and greater innovation.
The core of U.S. antitrust law was created by three pieces of legislation: the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Clayton Antitrust Act. These laws have evolved along with the market, vigilantly guarding against anti-competitive harm that arises from abuse of dominance, bid rigging, price fixing, and customer allocation.
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U.S. legislative proposals could undermine U.S. economic and security interests and strengthen foreign rivals without any apparent benefit to U.S. consumers.
America's Antitrust Laws: Explained in 60 Seconds
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Antitrust laws ensure competition thrives, providing consumers with lower prices and higher-quality products and services. However, some seek to rewrite these laws and undermine consumer power in the marketplace. Before Congress starts making unnecessary and harmful changes, it’s important to set a few things straight.
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In 1914, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was created when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Trade Commission Act into law. Since its founding, the FTC has held a unique and multifaceted role in the U.S. administrative state and the economy.
This Hill letter was sent to the Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, on several bills scheduled to be considered during a July 29 hearing.
This letter was sent to the Director-General for Competition at the European Commission to express the Chamber's serious concerns in relation to the European Commission Guidance on the application of the referral mechanism set out in Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation.
This Coalition letter was sent to the Members of the Senate Committee Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the Federal Trade Commission's statutory authority and H.R. 2668, the "Consumer Protection and Recovery Act."
This Hill letter was sent to the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, opposing H.R. 3849, H.R. 3816, H.R. 3825, and H.R. 3826. These bills are on the Legislative Leadership list for the “How They Voted” scorecard.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce writes to express our concerns with the Open Meeting scheduled for July 1, 2021 that was noticed on June 24, 2021.[1] Although the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) has expressed its intention to “open the work of the Commission” to the public, the FTC has failed to provide meaningful notice or adequate opportunity to comment on the pending items to be voted upon on July 1.
This Hill letter was sent to the House Committee on the Judiciary, on several bills the committee will mark up related to antitrust law.
This letter was sent to the Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary, on the the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law’s majority staff report on the “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets."
Antitrust empowers the market and consumers to set price.
Antitrust is not concerned with size, it is only concerned with how dominance is obtained and maintained in the market.
