Antitrust or competition laws, legislate against trade practices that undermine competitiveness or are considered to be unfair. The term antitrust derives from the U.S. law that was originally formulated to combat business trusts - now commonly known as cartels. Most antitrust activity can be classified in the following areas: bid rigging, the competitive bidding process, in which several suppliers or contractors are vying for contracts in what can be a very cutthroat environment, can be tailor-made for bribery; Monopolization, is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a kind of product or service; oligopolization, is a market form in which a market is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists.); price fixing, Any agreement between business competitors regarding price is considered price fixing and is illegal in many countries; tying, is the anti-competitive practice of requiring de facto or de jure the customer to purchase a certain package of goods together; vendor and lock-in business competition is a situation in which a customer is dependent on a vendor for products and services and cannot move to another vendor without substantial switching costs, real and/or perceived. www.reference.com
In the article, "UPM Won't Be Charged With Antitrust Activities In U.S." the company was being accused of possible price fixing on magazine paper, which obviously is considered to be an antitrust activity. Methods of price fixing can include:
? Agreements to adhere to a price book.
? Agreements to engage in cooperative price advertising.
? Agreements to standardize credit terms offered to purchasers.
? Agreements to use uniform trade-in allowances.
? Agreements to limit discounts.
? Agreements to di ...