Thursday, February 2, 2012

LAD #27: Clayton Antitrust Act

The Clayton Antitrust Act was passed in 1914 following the virtual failure of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Its purpose was introducing many new regulations on trusts and big business in general. It had many effects on trusts and corporations in the United States. First off, businesses could not make prices fluctuate depending on the consumer. This gave a bit of an advantage to the working poor, and was meant to endorse capitalism. It was a step toward economic fairness.  Under the Clayton Antitrust Act, if a company were to do this they would be fined.  This Act also made it officially illegal to bribe other businesses or consumers, again in the name of fair capitalism.  Also, special deals had to be offered to everyone, not just a specific group of customers.  Along with this, if you were to accept a special deal you could also be fined and arrested. This system was meant to lower discrimination between races or ethnicities. This act also made it so that one company could not sell another company's product. Even if there was no patent on the product, copying it was still illegal. To protect workers, if someone were to get hurt on the job, they were now allowed to sue the company they were working under, no matter what. There were severe punishments for every violation, and this was more successful than the Sherman Act at bringing big business down.

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