Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911), originated in 1906 when the federal government filed a suit against more than seventy corporations and individuals alleging a conspiracy to fix the production and price of oil in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Upholding a 1909 federal circuit court opinion finding the Standard Oil Company to be "an attempt to monopolize and a monopolization under Sec. 2 of the Antitrust Act," in 1911 the Supreme Court compelled the cartel to relinquish control over thirty-seven subsidiary companies, essentially creating thirty-eight ostensibly independent companies.
Bibliography
Bringhurst, Bruce. Antitrust and the Oil Monopoly: The Standard Oil Cases, 1890–1911. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979.
Freyer, Tony A. Regulating Big Business: Antitrust in Great Britain and America, 1880–1990. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
