What Are Trade Regulations?

Trade regulation laws are laws enacted by both federal and state governments to promote unrestrained competition amongst businesses. Trade regulations extend into many categories of law, such as anti-trust law, which prohibits anti-competitive acts like price-fixing, monopolistic conduct, and deceptive practices. Consumer protection law, advertising law, trademark law, and franchise law also fall under the umbrella of trade regulation.

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What are the Sherman Antitrust and Clayton Acts?

The Sherman Antitrust Act is a federal law prohibiting any contract, trust, or conspiracy in restraint of interstate or foreign trade. The Clayton Act regulates general practices that potentially may be detrimental to fair competition. Some of these general practices regulated by the Clayton Act are: price discrimination; exclusive dealing contracts, tying agreements, or requirement contracts; mergers and acquisitions; and interlocking directorates.

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What is a Refusal to Deal?

The definition of a refusal to deal or a concerted refusal to deal is an agreement between competing companies, or a company and an individual or business, to refuse to do business with another. A refusal to deal violates the Sherman Act and antitrust laws, and is illegal in the United States.

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What is a Covenant Not To Compete?

A covenant not to compete, or a non-compete clause, is an agreement in which one party agrees not to work for the other party’s direct competition in a specified area for a certain amount of time. While a covenant not to compete is generally found in an employment contract, it can be found in contracts for the sale of a business as well.

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What is Monopoly Power Under the Sherman Act?

Most legal terms or phrases have statutory definitions and interpretations by case law’the term monopoly power under the Sherman Antitrust Act is no different. What is formally monopoly power and what will eventually be considered monopoly power is defined by the definitions and regulations set out in the Sherman Antitrust, court interpretations, and administrative decisions through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

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What is Price Fixing?

Price fixing is a conspiracy between business competitors to set their prices to buy or sell goods or services at a certain point. This benefits all businesses or individuals that are on the same side of the market and involved in the conspiracy, as prices are either set high, stabilized, discounted, or fixed. Price fixing violates state and federal competition laws, which prohibits businesses collusion.

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What does Deceptive Act mean under the FTCA?

The Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) business regulations, originally passed in 1914, prohibit unfair competition by outlawing “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” FTCA business regulations apply to all individuals and businesses engaged in commerce, even banks.

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