After almost 120 years, does the Sherman Antitrust Act need statutory tweaking? Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal seem to think so. Last month, they introduced the Monopolization Deterrence Act, which would allow the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to seek civil penalties for monopolization offenses under U.S. antitrust law. The bill would create two versions of a penalty for antitrust violations under Section 2, either 15% of a company’s total U.S. revenue of the previous calendar year or 30% of the company’s total U.S. revenue related to the unlawful conduct during the time it took place—whichever amount is greater. Section 2237 names no particular offenders or recent events as its impetus. Whether such massive civil fines would end up in the hands of the injured or just thrown into the public treasury remains unclear under the language of the bill.

The Sherman Antitrust Act already carries hefty civil penalties in terms of automatic treble damages, injunctive relief and related lengthy consent decrees, reasonable attorney fees and costs and possible disbarment from government contracts. Moreover, criminal penalties are also available for conspiratorial conduct under Section 1, but also arguably for predatory monopoly conduct under Section 2, with fines not to exceed $100 million for a corporation, or $1 million for an individual, and a prison term of up to 10 years.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]