Business Glossary

legislation, passed in 1890, after a series of major corporate mergers. It outlaws any form of monopoly. It also outlaws acts or contracts to create monopoly and any attempt to acquire monopoly power.

federal legislation passed in 1890 prohibiting "monopolies or attempts to monopolize" and "contracts, combinations, or conspiracies in restraint of trade" in interstate and foreign commerce. The major purpose of the Sherman Antitrust Act was to prohibit monopolies and sustain competition so as to protect companies from each other and to protect consumers from unfair business practices. The act was supplemented by the clayton antitrust act in 1914. Both acts are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Attorney General's office.

1890 law prohibiting monopolies and restraint of trade in interstate commerce. The Sherman Act was strengthened in 1914 with amendments known as the Clayton Act that added further prohibitions against price-fixing conspiracies. These federal antitrust laws at first were not applied to the insurance industry because of the 1869 Supreme Court ruling in paul v. virginia that insurance was not commerce and thus not subject to federal regulation. After the South-Eastern Underwriters Association (SEUA) case in 1944 and passage of the mccarran-ferguson act (public law 15) in 1945, Congress made it clear that states would retain the power to regulate insurance but price-fixing and restraint of trade not sanctioned by state laws and regulations would be subject to federal antitrust prosecution.