미국 법무부의 반트러스트법 집행에 관한 고찰

A Study on the Enforcement of Antitrust Law by USDOJ

United States antitrust law is the body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are designed to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both, or generally to violate standards of ethical behavior. Government agencies known as competition regulators, along with private litigants, apply the antitrust and consumer protection laws in hopes of preventing market failure. The term “antitrust” was originally formulated to combat “business trusts”, now more commonly known as cartels. Other countries use the term “competition law”. Many countries including most of the Western world have antitrust laws of some form. And consumer protection laws seek to regulate certain aspects of the commercial relationship between consumers and business, such as by requiring minimum standards of product quality, requiring the disclosure of certain details about a product or service, prohibiting misleading advertising, or prescribing financial compensation for product liability. Consumer protection laws are distinct from anti-trust. Some consumer protection laws are enforced by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which also has anti-trust responsibilities. However, many competition agencies - including the Justice Department antitrust division and the European Commission Directorate General for competition- lack authority over consumer protection. I considered about various enforcements under the antitrust laws in the United States in this article, and I expect this article could be useful to improve related legal establishment in Korea.