U.S. anti-trust laws

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In the United States, the enforcement of Section 2 furthers purely economic goals. That is, United States antitrust law is not used to further the same kinds of social concerns that are furthered by the competition law of the Community. "United States antitrust laws are premised on the theory that competition will produce the best allocation of economic resources, promote technological innovation that will result in the lowest possible prices for the widest variety of high-quality goods and services." Consequently, application of the Sherman Antitrust Act is intended to allow unfettered market forces to set prices and to encourage optimal production. Accordingly, contemporary United States decisions reflect a hands off antitrust policy. A more permissive stance is taken toward many business arrangements in the United States because of their perceived efficiencies. For example, the United States Supreme Court has never affirmed a finding of monopoly power against a defendant possessing less than approximately seventy percent of the relevant market. The Community Court has found a dominant position to exist when an undertaking possesses forty to forty five percent. Indeed, United States antitrust policy is almost Darwinian in nature, with an eye toward the maintenance of a true capitalist system.

· U.S. antidumping law applies a different standard for judging pricing policies for imported products than antitrust law does for judging domestic products. Antidumping law serves primarily to protect U.S. firms from foreign competition, regardless of the impact on U.S. consumers and the economy. In contrast, our antitrust laws serve primarily to encourage competition and protect individual consumers and the economy from harmful pricing practices.
· When a foreign exporter sells in the United States at a price below cost or at a price below the price it charges elsewhere, it almost always benefits the U.S. economy as a whole, except in the rare cases in which predatory pricing can be shown. Nevertheless, individual firms and their workers may be temporarily injured by such practices.
· Over time, U.S. firms seeking protection from foreign competition have come to rely almost exclusively on antidumping law rather than on antitrust law because it is easier for them to receive ...