Sherman Anti-Trust Act

(noun)

The Sherman Antitrust Act (July 2, 1890, ch. 647, 26 Stat. 209, 15 U.S.C. § 1–7) is a landmark federal statute on competition law passed by Congress in 1890, which prohibits certain business activities that reduce competition in the marketplace, and requires the United States federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies, and organizations suspected of being in violation.

Related Terms

Examples of Sherman Anti-Trust Act in the following topics:

  • Federalism

    • Those opposed to the new Constitution became known as the Anti-Federalists.
    • The Anti-Federalists believed that the legislative branch had too much unchecked power, that the executive branch had too much power, and that there was no check on the chief executive.
    • The federal government acquired no substantial new powers until the acceptance by the Supreme Court of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

  • The Labor Wars

    • The court injunction was based on the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which prohibited "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States. " Debs and other leaders of the ARU ignored the injunction, and federal troops were called into action.

  • Rockefeller and the Oil Industry

    • John Davison Rockefeller was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, a business trust which dominated the oil industry.
    • This organization proved so successful that other giant enterprises adopted this "trust" form.
    • In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act — the source of all American anti-monopoly laws.
    • In 1909, the US Department of Justice sued Standard under federal anti-trust law, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, for sustaining a monopoly and restraining interstate commerce.
    • On May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court upheld the lower court judgment and declared the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

  • Robber Barons and the Captains of Industry

    • He attributed the phrase to an 1880 anti-monopoly pamphlet about railroad magnates.
    • Within a decade, the Cotton Trust, Lead Trust, Sugar Trust, and Whiskey Trust, along with oil, telephone, steel, and tobacco trusts, had become, or were in the process of becoming, monopolies.
    • The result was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Senator John Sherman, of Ohio.
    • Senator Sherman and other sponsors declared that the act had roots in a common-law policy that frowned on monopolies.
    • Nevertheless, passage of the Sherman Act did not end the public clamor, because fifteen years passed before a national administration began to enforce the act, when President Theodore Roosevelt, known as "the Trustbuster," sent his attorney general after the Northern Securities Corporation, a transportation holding company.

  • Regulation

    • Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act).
    • The Sherman Antitrust Act is a landmark federal statute in the history of United States antitrust law passed by Congress in 1890.
    • Passed under the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, it prohibits certain business activities that federal government regulators deem to be anti-competitive, and requires the federal government to investigate and pursue trusts.
    • President Theodore Roosevelt sued 45 companies under the Sherman Act, while William Howard Taft sued 75.
    • In 1911 the Supreme Court agreed that in recent years (1900–1904) Standard had violated the Sherman Act.

  • From Competition to Consolidation

    • Rockefeller organized his Standard Oil of Ohio as a common-law trust .
    • Within a decade, the Cotton Trust, Lead Trust, Sugar Trust, and Whiskey Trust, along with oil, telephone, steel, and tobacco trusts, had become, or were in the process of becoming, monopolies.
    • The result was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Senator John Sherman, of Ohio.
    • Senator Sherman and other sponsors declared that the act had roots in a common-law policy that frowned on monopolies.
    • Nevertheless, passage of the Sherman Act did not end the public clamor, because fifteen years passed before a national administration began to enforce the act, when President Theodore Roosevelt—"the Trustbuster"sent his attorney general after the Northern Securities Corporation, a transportation holding company.

  • Anti-Trust Laws

    • Wilson sought to encourage competition and curb trusts by using the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the Clayton Antitrust Act.
    • Wilson also attempted to curtail child labor with the Keating-Owen Act.
    • In addition to the Underwood tariff, which seemed to finally resolve the political debate over tariff rates, and the creation of the Federal Reserve, Wilson also supported anti-trust legislation.
    • Rather than the piecemeal success of Roosevelt and Taft in targeting certain trusts and monopolies in lengthy lawsuits, the Clayton Antitrust Act effectively defined unfair business practices and created a common code of sanctioned business activity.
    • Wilson uses tariff, currency and anti-trust laws to prime the pump and get the economy working in a 1913 political cartoon.

  • Antitrust Laws

    • This process, though long and arduous, was enabled by the Sherman Act and Federal Trade Commission Act and substantially improved the competitive nature of the computer industry.
    • This document enacted provisions to eliminate anti-competitive agreements.
    • United States (U.S.) - In the U.S., antitrust policy finds its roots in 1890 with the Sherman Antitrust Act.
    • The Sherman Act dealt with avoiding or limiting the power of trusts, or essentially the creation of price-controlling cartels.
    • This act was expanded upon in 1914, with two more competitive laws: The Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

  • The Progressive Era

    • Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act) and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act).
    • Wilson helped end the long battles over the trusts with the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.
    • President Wilson uses tariff, currency, and anti-trust laws to prime the pump and get the economy working.

  • Federal Efforts to Control Monopoly

    • The Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890, declared that no person or business could monopolize trade or could combine or conspire with someone else to restrict trade.
    • In 1914, Congress passed two more laws designed to bolster the Sherman Antitrust Act: the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
    • The Federal Trade Commission Act established a government commission aimed at preventing unfair and anti-competitive business practices.
    • Critics believed that even these new anti-monopoly tools were not fully effective.
    • In those markets, merger of two substantial firms would be anti-competitive, the court said.