feb 14, 1911 - Standard Oil Case: Monopoly Behavior vs Monopoly Structure

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The Supreme Court found Standard Oil guilty of monopolizing the petroleum industry through a series of abusive and anticompetitive actions. The Court’s remedy was to divide Standard Oil into several competing firms.

This case was an example of both monopoly behavior and of monopoly structure. Standard Oil had a monopoly on the petroleum industry and got there by illegal actions, therefore it violated the Sherman Act. Standard Oil was labelled as a “bad trust.” This was the first case however to bring up the question is every monopoly in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act or just those created or maintained by anticompetitive actions?

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