Sherman Act
The Sherman Act, passed in 1890, is an anti-trust law.
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Description
The Sherman Act outlaws any "contract, combination, or conspiracy" that unreasonably restrains trade. Per se violations include price fixing, bid rigging, and customer allocation. Outside of these, the Rule of Reason standard is applied to determine what is 'reasonable'.
It also outlaws (attempts to establish) monopolies of a market.
The Sherman Act is a criminal law, so adjudication can be sought in both civil and criminal courts.
History
The Sherman Act is named for the senator who wrote the bill and introduced it into Congress, John Sherman. It was passed and signed into law under Republican control of both Congress and the White House, though nearly unanimously.
The act was written largely in the context of the Standard Oil Company monopoly of the oil market and its rebate scheme with railroad companies. While Standard Oil was an early target of the act's enforcement, the trust would not be busted until Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States was decided in 1911.
Enforcement began slow but rapidly expanded into the early 20th century. The Harrison, Cleveland, and McKinley administrations combined had brought 18 cases. The Roosevelt administration filed 44 (26 criminal). The Taft administration filed 75 (36 criminal).
Anti-trust law was expanded in 1914 by the Clayton Act and Federal Trade Commission Act.