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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Since February 2021, FTC leadership has moved to silence dissent at the agency and consolidate power in ways that call into question the independence of the five-member commission.
Comments in response to TTB’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding competition in the beer, wine, and spirits industry filed on June 26, 2023.
Comments in response to the Federal Trade Commission; notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the Negative Option Rule filed on June 23, 2023.
The Chamber's comments on best practices of cloud computing providers filed on June 20, 2023.
This Statement for the Record was sent to the Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, on the hearing "Competition in the Digital Advertising Ecosystem."
The U.S. Chamber sent a letter to calling upon the White House to exert greater oversight of the FTC and DOJ over their assistance with foreign regulations that undermine the interests of U.S. companies abroad.
Coalition comments signed by more than 280 organizations representing 45 states on the FTC's proposed rule to ban noncompete clauses.
The Chamber submitted comments to the FTC on its proposed rule to ban noncompete clauses.
Recent European Union (EU) merger developments raise concerns for both European and non-European businesses and consumers, and the ability of national governments to regulate events that affect their local economies.
The Federal Trade Commission’s Section 5 guidance will discourage competition and damage America’s competitiveness.
