Anti-Competitive Behavior

Business ethics and responsibility, Information potential business people and business people should know.

It is usually difficult to practice anti-competitive practices unless the parties involved have significant market power or government backing.

Monopolies and oligopolies are often accused of, and sometimes found guilty of, anti-competitive practices. For this reason, company mergers are often examined closely by government regulators to avoid reducing competition in an industry.

Although anti-competitive practices often enrich those who practice them, they are generally believed to have a negative effect on the economy as a whole, and to disadvantage competing firms and consumers who are not able to avoid their effects, generating a significant social cost. For these reasons, most countries have competition laws to prevent anti-competitive practices, and government regulators to aid the enforcement of these laws.

Anti-trust and competition laws help preserve a competitive economy and discourage anti-competitive practices, that prevent and/or reduce competition in a market.

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Antitrust Laws: The U.S. Model