What Are Trade Regulations?

Trade regulation laws are laws enacted by both federal and state governments to promote unrestrained competition amongst businesses. Trade regulations extend into many categories of law, such as anti-trust law, which prohibits anti-competitive acts like price-fixing, monopolistic conduct, and deceptive practices. Consumer protection law, advertising law, trademark law, and franchise law also fall under the umbrella of trade regulation.

→ Read More

What are the Sherman Antitrust and Clayton Acts?

The Sherman Antitrust Act is a federal law prohibiting any contract, trust, or conspiracy in restraint of interstate or foreign trade. The Clayton Act regulates general practices that potentially may be detrimental to fair competition. Some of these general practices regulated by the Clayton Act are: price discrimination; exclusive dealing contracts, tying agreements, or requirement contracts; mergers and acquisitions; and interlocking directorates.

→ Read More

What is a Refusal to Deal?

The definition of a refusal to deal or a concerted refusal to deal is an agreement between competing companies, or a company and an individual or business, to refuse to do business with another. A refusal to deal violates the Sherman Act and antitrust laws, and is illegal in the United States.

→ Read More

Business Law

Business law encompasses legal matters at every level: federal, local, and state laws. Balancing these differences may require multiple business lawyers who specialize in different…

→ Read More

What is a Covenant Not To Compete?

A covenant not to compete, or a non-compete clause, is an agreement in which one party agrees not to work for the other party’s direct competition in a specified area for a certain amount of time. While a covenant not to compete is generally found in an employment contract, it can be found in contracts for the sale of a business as well.

→ Read More

How Many Owners/Members Can an LLC Have?

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a corporation and partnership hybrid that allows owners the freedom of decision making of a partnership along with the liability protection of a corporation. Each state interprets this hybrid status differently and has different requirements for ownership. The majority of states require that an LLC have at least one member, or owner.

→ Read More

Misleading, Fraudulent or Incomplete Franchisor’s Disclosure Document

Under the business law statutes of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the owner of a franchise business is required to disclose certain information to a potential franchise buyer in the Franchise Disclosure Document. A Franchise Disclosure Document must be given by a corporation to a prospective franchisee at least 14 days before any deals are made.

→ Read More