Egt Task 3

3 The numbers of firms that produce identical products or goods which are homogenous are called market structure. Industrial regulation is the government regulation on an entire industry with the objective of keeping a close eye on the industry prices and take advantage of consumers. Rules set by government and agencies that help control the operations of businesses who may demonstrate monopoly power in their organization. Monopoly may lead to consumers being exploited (higher prices) and consumers paying way too much for a product. Antitrust laws are federal and state government laws that regulate the conduct and organization or businesses. This helps promote fair competition for consumers. There are four main areas involving the antitrust laws that include agreements between competitors, contractual agreements between sellers and buyers, the restriction and maintenance of monopoly, and mergers. The Sherman Act, which is one of the main statutes, has a contract or agreement in the form of a trust, dealing with trade and commerce among numerous of states, or nations, is deemed illegal. Also, it states that any person who monopolize, or attempt to, conspire with any other person(s) to monopolize in trade commerce will be found guilty and charged with a felony. Both of these violations carry major penalties. For each corporation that violates the act may be fined up to $1 million. Likewise, any persons found guilty of a violation may be fined up to $100, 000 and/or imprisonment for up to three years. For corporations, it is hard to enforce this law due to lack of identification of a specific market to prove monopolization. It requires scrutiny of both the market and the product from the vantage point of both the consumer and other potential producers (Ecnomicae). The Clayton Antitrust Act added to the already existing antitrust law by forbidding things like price discrimination, “where the effect of numerous practices may be to drastically decrease competition or