Online AntiTrust Issues
Antitrust law is a United States legal code that helps to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competition actions by organizations. The Sherman Act of 1890 was one of the first attempts to restrict large companies who fixed price, output and then manipulated demand to maximize their products. Standard Oil was one of the prime early examples of a company that controlled markets to the point that the government felt was detrimental to the entry of other competitors (Bork, 1993). In our current example, companies like Facebook and Google are being investigated, similar to Microsoft and AT&T, for controlling the Internet search process and/or network effects. This does not stop with Facebook and Google, but moves into many of the giant e-tailers (Amazon, EBay, etc.) that often use predatory or collusive practices to force customers into either advertising on their site, pricing to their scale, or in the case…...
mlaREFERENCES
Is Microsoft a Monopoly? If so, why does it matter? (2009). Thisnation.com. Retrieved from:
http://www.thisnation.com/question/027.html
Monopoly. (January 20, 2005). The Linux Project. Retrieved from:
Antitrust Laws: Apple's Case
Competition is a vital element of any vibrant marketplace. Thanks to competition, both businesses and individuals get to benefit from lower prices, increased product variety, higher-quality commodities, and greater innovation. Antitrust laws are meant to ensure that consumers are protected from unfair business practices and anticompetitive mergers, and that consequently, effective levels of competition are created and sustained in the economy.
Antitrust laws differ from country to country and, at times, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In the U.S., antitrust laws include the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Federal Trade Commission and Clayton Acts, both of 1914 (FTC, 2014). The Sherman Act, whose violation is punishable by criminal law, outlaws any attempts to monopolize a market or restrain trade through rig bids, divide markets, or price fixation (FTC, 2014). The Federal Trade Commission Act, on the other hand, illegalizes any '"unfair methods of competition' and 'unfair or deceptive…...
mlaReferences
Carmody, T. (2012). DOJ Files Antitrust Suit against Apple and Five Publishers over E-Book Pricing. Wired. Retrieved 1 March 2014 from http://www.wired.com/2012/04/doj-files-antitrust-suit-against-apple-and-five-publishers/
Catan, T., Trachtenberg, J. & Bray, C. (2012). U.S. Alleges E-Book Scheme. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 April 2014 from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304444604577337573054615152
FTC. (2014). The Antitrust Laws. Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved 1 March 2014 from http://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws
Herther, N. (2013). Apple Gambles on Winning E-Book Antitrust Suit. Information Today. Retrieved 1 April 2014 from http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Apple-Gambles-on-Winning-Ebook-Antitrust-Suit-90274.asp
(discuss them and then choose one that would possibly work)
One possible solution for this anti-trust problem, which is currently proposed by authorities, is that Microsoft should allow its competitors to access its information database. In this way, the competition could build new applications that are compatible with the Microsoft operating systems - Windows so would not be affected by the Microsoft strategy to develop an integral and connected line of products. Another solution could be the individual taxation of Microsoft due to its market power. In this case, the taxes that could be as high as 0% from the total profits and would unfairly tax the advantage taken in time by Microsoft. The money for this tax could be otherwise used by Microsoft for development plans, or why not for resolving social aspects - the poverty reduction of third world countries.
Another answer proposed by analysts in this case was…...
mla1) Lemos, Robert. CNET News, 2003-06-10. Retrieved on 2007- 02-05
2) Mace, Michael. www.pa.msu.eduarchived from apple.com, February 9, 1995
3) Rebello, Kathy. www.businessweek.comBusiness Week, 1997-06-15. Retrieved on 2007- 02-05
Antitrust Practices and Market Power: Google Antitrust Behavior
Economic theory expresses that competition contributes substantially to the efficient operations of markets, and hence to the improvement of a nation's wealth status. Antitrust laws seek to foster competition in the marketplace and to consequently ensure that the welfare of consumers is maximized through the provision of low-priced high-quality products. This the laws do by preventing the emergence of cartels and monopolies, which impede on competition by creating barriers to entry, with the help of which they are able to obtain market power and consequently drive market prices to favor them. Although monopolies may result from either government action or natural reasons, in which case they are referred to as government and natural monopolies respectively, most monopolies are formed through exclusivity contract arrangements, mergers, acquisitions, and collusion. Antitrust laws work at limiting these.
The Costs of Antitrust Behavior
A number of companies have engaged in…...
mlaReferences
Antitrust Laws. (2014). Antitrust Law Examples: Are they Helpful to the Free Marketplace? Antitrust.org. Retrieved 19 March 2014 from http://www.antitrustlaws.org/Antitrust-Law-Examples.html
Marrs, M. (2012). 30 Facts about the Google Antitrust Case. The Word Stream Blog. Retrieved 19 March 2014 from http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/12/06/google-antitrust-case
Marrs, M. (2012). 30 Facts about the Google Antitrust Case. The Word stream Blog. Retrieved 19 March 2014 from
Antitrust
I don't have the proper bibliographical info for the book chapters. I noted the number from the two PDFs of the book where appropriate. You might wish to add the proper info and change the notes to fit.
MAKET CONDITIONS in the U.S.: It would seem highly unlikely that this information alone would be sufficient to bring an antitrust action. Prudent and even gutsy or aggressive business people might well seek such information to generate a competitive advantage with little intention toward manipulating the market (Fried Frank, 2002). Even if it does lean toward some expected restraint of trade (Sherman Act), what is occurring at this point clearly passes the reasonableness test. Talking of such issues is not collusive price fixing and suggests no conscious parallelism, for example, which might indicate that their association is for inappropriate purposes (pg. 468).
DETAILS of INDIVIDUAL SALES: In this instance the burden of predatory intent…...
mlaREFERENCES
Bern, R. (1995). A Biblical Model for Analysis of Issues of Law and Public Policy: With illustrative applications to contracts, antitrust, remedies and public policy issues. Regent University Law Review, Vol. 6. 103-196.
Elzinga, F. (n.d.). CASE 9: Collusive Predation: Matsushita v. Zenith (1986). Viewable at www.oup.com/us/pdf/kwoka/0195120159_09.pdf.
Fried Frank (2002). Firm Hit with $1 Billion Antitrust Verdict for Aggressive Marketing Practices. Fried Frank Antitrust and Competition Law Alert. Viewable at www.ffhsj.com/practice_groups/antitrust.htm.
FTC (2007). International Aspects of Antitrust Enforcement. Prepared Remarks of Commissioner Roscoe B. Starek, III. Viewable at http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/starek/starekda.shtm .
Otherwise, employers need no specific reason or excuse to terminate at will employment "at will." Even at will employees probably have legal recourse if fired for refusing to obey a law, but in this case, the "urging" did not have legal authority, so the issue is moot.
3. The Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton prohibit such "tying" arrangements where the entity maintains extensive control of product supply. Federal antitrust laws are administrated by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission 4. The Equal Protection Clause (applied to the states through the Due Process Clause) prohibit such a firing of employees based on their religious affiliation or their specific religious practices. But refusal to comply with perfectly legal directives of the employer is not religious discrimination; it is dismissal for cause....
Independent dealers must sign a contract that sets forth the manner in which they will operate their rental centers. Often a small business owner will supplement their income be adding U-Hauls to their market mix. Independent contractors earn a commission on their sales.
Each division of AMERCO has it own president. All of them must report to a Board of Directors. The Chairman of the Board and overall President is Edward Shoen, descendent of the original founders of the company. Many members of the Shoen family still control much of the company (Google Finance). Little information is available about the company, aside from their financial statements. Although they have a Board of Directors, the company continues to operate as a family-style operation, with the family members occupying many positions in upper management. The company structure is simple and little is available beyond basic information.
Purchasing Contract Analysis and the UCC
The Uniform…...
mlaWorks Cited
Ceh v. UHaul International, Inc., 11th district court of appeals, No. 04-10031.
A www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200410671.pdf. Accessed January 22.
Company News; U-Haul's Parent Seeks Bankruptcy Protection." June 21, 2003. New
York Times. Accessed January 23, 2007.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800EFDF173BF932A15755C0A9659C8B63 .
Of course, in recent years, this power has been diluted somewhat thanks to the rise of collective bargaining. Nonetheless, the fact that for so many years baseball has been characterized as a game rather than interstate commerce worked to the benefit of the industry as a whole.
If the exemption were repealed, apparently only possible through act of Congress, players and teams could sue the league if their movements were restricted and limitations placed on their ability to conduct business for themselves (Rovell). MLB could still manage how teams and players moved, but the repeal of the exemption would eliminate their absolute control over these movements. Obviously, this would have a significant impact on the baseball industry, but would not be necessarily devastating. Other sports have persisted despite not having antitrust exemptions, so there is little reason to expect that baseball couldn't adapt as well.
orks Cited
Belth, Alex. "Ending Baseball's Antitrust…...
mlaWorks Cited
Belth, Alex. "Ending Baseball's Antitrust Exemption." Baseball Prospectus. 26 Nov. 2001. 15 July 2008 http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/Courses/econ352jpw/readme/Baseball%20Prospectus%20-%20Ending%20Baseball%27s%20Antitrust%20Exemption.htm .
Greenberg, David. "Baseball's Con Game." Slate. 19 July 2002. 15 July 2008 http://www.slate.com/id/2068290/ .
Morrissey, Mo. "Baseball Labor Relations: Anti-Trust Exemptions & the Reserve Clause." Associated Content. 19 Oct. 2007. 15 July 2008 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/421296/baseball_labor_relations_antitrust.html .
Rovell, Darren. "Baseball's Antitrust Exemption: Q & a." ESPN: Baseball. 6 Dec. 2007. 15 July 2008 http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2001/1205/1290707.html .
Corporation Transactions and Misrepresentation of Financial eports
Business law also called commercial law is a branch of civil law that governs business as well as, commercial transactions, and deals with both the private and public law. The branch created to ensure that, they are no exploitation and manipulation of people as well as rules and regulation in order to benefit some members of a business. This means that should one break or manipulate the rules and regulation in his favor. The or she must face the court in accordance with the law. With legal rights of all investors considered as an important element of the business law, we examine the board changes within the filling of the shareholder derivative lawsuits and might not be frivolous. Also, lack of highly competent employees within a business can lead to tremendous losses and to some extent closure of the business in accordance with law,…...
mlaReference list
Arlen, J. (1994). The Potentially Perverse Effects of Corporate Criminal Liability, the Journal of Legal Studies 23 (June), 833.
Becker, G.S. (1968). "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach." Journal of Political Economy 76 (March/April), 169-217.
Zingales, L. (2004). The Costs and Benefits of Financial Market Regulation, European Corporate Governance Institute working paper 21/2004
After an eleven year investigation against Microsoft claiming it was trying to monopolize the web, the company finally settled with the Justice Department. Even though Microsoft was required to implement changes, the company maintains its dominance and has grown larger while being responsibly and adhering to the antitrust laws.
The Potential U.S. Case Against Google
An antitrust suit was filed against Google this year claiming the search giant is violating the antitrust laws. The Justice department has been looking at Google for some time now. In the fall of 2007, while Google was prepared to commit to a search ad deal with Yahoo, the justice department was planning to file suit if the deal hadn't fallen through with Yahoo.
Google is now becoming everyone's favorite antitrust target, rapidly replacing Microsoft. In February of this year a company called TradeComet.com, which operates a business-focused search service called SourceTool.com, filed an antitrust suit against…...
mlaBibliography
Carr, Nicholas. "Understanding Google." 27 Nov 2007. Rough Type. 1 June 2009 .
Hof, Rob. "Antitrust Suit Filed Against Google." 17 Feb 2009. BusinessWeek. 2 June 2009 .
McCollum, Jordan. "Antitrust Suit Filed Against Google." 19 Feb 2009 . Marketing Pilgrim . 2 June 2009 .
Page, Larry. "Corporate Information." n.d. Google. 1 June 2009 .
Business Law (predators
Businesses often engage in predatory practices to deter their competitors from entering their market niches or send their competitors out of business. Certain business ventures usually reduce their prices to destroy their rivals or worse still discourage new entry into the market. This happens regardless of the existence of the Sherman Act that was enacted to prohibit this predatory practice. The Sherman Act has largely been considered vague because of its inability to reign in firms that engage in predatory pricing vice (Areeda & Turner, 1975). Business ventures that engage in predatory pricing tend to draw a very vague line between legitimately competitive prices and prices that are utterly predatory. Businesses that engage in predatory pricing normally price their products below appropriate measure of cost with an intention of driving their financially weaker competitors out of business and establishing monopoly power. Courts have failed to address the issue…...
mlaReferences List
Areeda, P. & Turner, D.F. (1975). Predatory Pricing and Related Practices under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Harvard Law Review, 88(4), 697-733.
Bowdler, J. (2005). Jeopardizing Hispanic Homeownership: Predatory Practices in the Homebuying Market. National Council of La Raza, 15, 1-20.
Oster, C.V. & Strong, J.S. (2001). Predatory Practices in the U.S. Airline Industry. Retrieved May 27, 2013 from http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/17000/17600/17602/PB2001102478.pdf
Business Law
During the consumer movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Congress enacted a substantial amount of legislation to protect "the good of the people." There is only one problem with consumer protection laws -- they are slow to react and even harder to enforce. As a result of this situation, corporations are allowed to profit at the expense of consumers' health. The resistance comes in a number of stages. The first is denial of the problem, wherein the corporations argue that there is not enough evidence to link their products with the negative outcomes that are being reported. Then there is the lobbying that causes politicians to defer action until a later date, or ignore the call to action altogether. Too often, when statutes are enacted, corporations fight them to the end, resulting in flawed legislation that either has loopholes, require interpretation from the judicial branch or is difficult to…...
mlaReferences:
Bray, G., Nielsen, S. & Popkin, B. (2004). Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Vol. 79 (4) 537-543.
Goldberg, C. & Zimmerman, R. (2011). What's making us fat? Researchers put food additives on suspect list. Common Health. Retrieved April 11, 2012 from http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2011/08/food-additives-obesity
Hellmich, N. (2009). Rising obesity will cost U.S. health care $344 billion a year. USA Today. Retrieved April 11, 2012 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-11-17-future-obesity-costs_N.htm
Miller, R. & Jentz, G. (2010). Business law today: 9th edition. South-Western/Cengage Learning.
Antitrust Practices and Market Power
The modern business environment is increasingly characterized by the proliferation of emerging monopolies in various industries. One of the industries that have experienced an increase in budding monopolies is Information Technology, particularly with the growth and development of social media and networks. Technology companies have rapidly developed into monopolies because of the connection between attractive business opportunities. The growth of leading technology companies into monopolies has also been fueled by their efforts to gain and maintain market power. However, some of these companies such as Google, AT&T, Standard Oil, Microsoft, and Facebook have been investigated for antitrust behavior.
Similar to Google, Facebook is company whose growth and development is partly attributed to the failure by Microsoft to strangle it like it did to Netscape a decade before. Facebook's business and operations are entirely built on focusing on developing network effects since the firm's value for users is…...
mlaReferences
European Commission (2014, October 24). Antitrust: Commission Probes Allegations of Antitrust Violations by Google. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-10-1624_en.htm
Fox, J. (2013, January). The Web's New Monopolies. Atlantic Monthly, 30-34.
Windrum, P. (n.d.). Back from the Brink: Microsoft and the Strategic Use of Standards in the Browser Wars. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://arno.unimaas.nl/show.cgi?fid=292
Antitrust Case
Economic general
Antitrust practices and market power: Microsoft
One of the most famous and prolonged cases involving antitrust allegations was that of the suit brought about by the Department of Justice against the Microsoft Corporation. It was alleged that Microsoft's act of 'bundling' specific applications such as its web browser, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player to make them the default setting of its Windows operating system resulted in anticompetitive practices within the software industry. The European Union also waged an antitrust case against Microsoft, and its findings against the company were even more broad and sweeping than in the United States. As a result, in the EU, Microsoft "was not allowed to offer any technological, commercial, or contractual term or inducement to make the bundled version the more attractive, and a monitoring trustee was required to ensure that the unbundled version of Windows works as well as the bundled version"…...
mlaReferences
Economides, N., & Lianos, I. (2009). The elusive antitrust standard on bundling in Europe and in the United States in the aftermath of the Microsoft cases. Antitrust Law Journal, 76(2), 483-567.
HEALTHCAE Healthcare: Policy Analysis- Certificate of Needs (CON) LawFor the regulation of the American healthcare system, certain laws have been instituted to facilitate the functions of healthcare convenience. With the notion that healthcare delivery would be accessible to all, without discrimination of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or location proximity, CON has been under debate for particular reasons. This paper aims to highlight what CON is in reality, whom it has impacted, and the points of concern regarding disseminating its benefits.Background (What Are CONs)A Certificate of Needs (CON) is the permission that healthcare providers need from lawmakers before introducing a new treatment or service to the population (Mitchell, 2021). It needs to be ensured that the new healthcare intervention is harmless and would not harm the populations health. The expansion of facilities for a specific purpose and investment in healthcare technology must be approved by lawmakers for authentication as well as…...
mlaReferencesBotti, M.J. (2007, February 23).Competition in healthcare and certificates of need. U.S. Department of Justice. Conover, C.J. & Bailey, J. (2020). Certificate of need laws: A systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis. BMC Health Services Research, 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05563-1 Mitchell, M.D. (2021, May 21). Certificate of need laws: How they affect healthcare access, quality and cost. Mercatus Center. https://www.mercatus.org/Certificate-of-Need-Laws-How-They-Affect-Healthcare-Access-Quality-and-Cost#conlawhistory Ohlhausen, M.K. (2015). Certificate of need laws: A prescription for higher costs. Antitrust, 30(1), 50-54. Sandefur, C. (2020, February 26). Competitor’s veto: State certificate of need laws violate state prohibitions on monopolies. Regulatory Transparency Project. https://regproject.org/paper/competitors-veto-state-certificate-of-need-laws-violate-state-prohibitions-on-monopolies/ State Policy Network. (2021, April 1). Certificate of need laws: Why they exist and who they hurt. https://spn.org/blog/certificate-of-need-laws/https://www.justice.gov/atr/competition-healthcare-and-certificates-need
Essay Topics Regarding Business Liberty
1. The Role of Government in Regulating Business
Examine the different justifications for government regulation of business.
Discuss the pros and cons of various types of regulation, such as antitrust laws and environmental regulations.
Evaluate the effectiveness of government regulation in achieving its intended objectives.
2. The Social Responsibility of Business
Define and discuss the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Analyze the arguments for and against businesses taking on social responsibilities.
Explore the implications of CSR for businesses and society as a whole.
3. The Private and Public Sectors in the Economy
Compare and contrast the roles....
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