What is the purpose of Anti-trust laws?

Answer 1

The primary purposes of antitrust legislation are to protect small businesses and protect the competitiveness of U. S. markets. The laws are designed to break up monopolies and combinations of companies.

Answer 2

Antitrust laws are around so that companies cannot have a monopoly in a niche. This means that customers wonÃ?t have to buy something from only one company, they can shop around for the best price.

Answer 3

To protect the consumer. When a company controls all the services in one sector of theeconomy they can control the prices and how much is available for the consumer. A good example of this is with Enron. Enron controlled the electrical grid in CA and the consumer paid more the usage of the electricity sent to CA. Enron got rich. The phone service has been another area where antitrust laws have come into effect. In the 1980's Pacific Bell controlled the phone service in CA. It was broken up and many mini Bells were created. Pacific Bell then morphed into AT&T and has brought together many of the mini Bells to make a huge company now providing internet, phone, wireless and TV. My personal feeling is that they be in violation of the anti trust laws. Without competition the consumer has little protection against high fees.