The Sherman Antitrust Act was meant to protect consumers from monopolistic business practices that could drive up prices by eliminating competition. It was originally directed against the Standard Oil Company, owned by John D. Rockefeller, Sr., and provided for fines up to $10 million for corporations or $350,000 for individuals.
President Benjamin Harrison signed the Sherman Antitrust Act into law to prohibit coercive
In general, monopolies result in higher consumer prices due to lack of competition, but this is not always the case. Critics of the Sherman Antitrust Act argue that large companies that control their market because they achieve economies of scale in an efficient and legal manner should not be treated as coercive monopolies. Such companies may not artificially raise consumer prices but may keep prices at the levels that the market will tolerate while supplying consumer demand. As long as a large company does not artificially raise prices or arbitrarily withhold products to create shortages and drive up prices, it does not violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. Price-fixing arrangements among competing companies are a violation, as they restrain or interfere with market forces setting prices.
Interpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act has changed over the past century. Originally, the act also prohibited many types of organized labor activities, but such actions were legalized under the
Antitrust legislation
Clayton Antitrust Act
Federal Trade Commission
Labor history
Northern Securities Company
Price fixing
John D. Rockefeller
Sports franchises
Standard Oil Company
Supreme Court and commerce