Antitrust Committee Americanstollerbig: This week’s blog post is about the antitrust committee, Americanstollerbig. This is a very powerful committee that has huge implications on the economy itself. It could have a major effect on businesses and bring them to ruin if they don’t behave properly with antitrust laws. The consequences of this means many people will lose their jobs including but not limited to business owners, consumers and workers in America. Americanstollerbig has been around for over a century, it was established in 1914 by Congress.
Some of the biggest cases that came about due to antitrust were a civil widescale antitrust involving polyvinyl chloride and the “soft drink wars” where certain industries went to war one against another. The result of these cases has been loss of jobs, income and even death in some instances. One of the most prominent cases that was heard in front of this committee was between Standard Oil and United States Steel. A year before this case took place “Standard Oil had already threatened to divide up steel into five separate but cooperative companies if the government established a trust for the industry in an attempt at keeping prices up. The trust was supposed to attempt at restraining cutthroat competition between steel companies in an effort to keep prices and profits as high as possible.
During the early 20th century Americanstollerbig was a very powerful committee and held massive influence over businesses. When the government set up in order to promote free competition, it had almost no staff or funding. General John Bates Clark was the only member of this committee because of President Woodrow Wilson. Clark believed that the only way to settle competition disputes was through arbitration rather than through government regulations. President Theodore Roosevelt disagrees and he sets up a separate committee to put an end to the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The committee had very few resources during this time due to the lack of a strong federal government and it being in its infancy. The committee took on a very prominent role in 1911 when Standard Oil was taken over by John D. Rockefeller. The Committee had to review Standard Oil’s actions that the Supreme Court ruled as illegal. Standard Oil was a very powerful company at one point and the antitrust committee had to figure out whether to allow it to continue or make it smaller. The board of directors of Standard Oil decided not to allow the situation to get worse and voted for concentration in order for prices and profits to be fairly distributed between shareholders. The committee agreed on the vote and they made it so that the company would stay intact.
In 1914, a new antitrust law known as the Clayton Act was passed by Congress. This law got rid of certain aspects of trusts and completely prohibited others. For example, it prohibited “every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of commerce among the several States.” It also outlawed any attempt to monopolize a part of trade or commerce that would affect more than one state. The Sherman Antitrust Act that was passed in 1890, which was an amendment to the Sherman antitrust act.
During the 1960s many significant cases were decided by this committee. An example of one of these cases is the “soft drink wars” this is a term that describes the battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi regarding prices and distribution within their products. Coca-Cola had a large price advantage over Pepsi, this caused much problem for Pepsi and because of it they wanted to curb Coca-Cola’s business. The Sherman Antitrust Act was in position as a way to counter this problem. However, the antitrust committee ruled that Pepsi could not sue Coca-Cola because of it being illegal for them to hold a monopoly on their product or parts of their product.
During the 1960s, “antitrust laws and regulations were increasingly difficult to enforce.” Many companies began double paying employees and keeping illegal books to help them stay afloat.
