aws over the years. An early federal success came with the Supreme Court decision of 1911 that forced the giant Standard Oil Company to split up into independent entities.4 Antitrust action declined in the 1920s, but was vigorously resumed in the 1930s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Antitrust legislation held firm for several decades. The Tunney Act of 1974 established public notice and judicial oversight procedures regarding consent decrees entered into by the government to settle antitrust cases. 5 antitrust enforcement was again de-emphasized in the 1980s under Presidents Reagan and Bush. The growth of huge conglomerates that control multiple companies has hindered the enforcement of antitrust legislation. With growing unpopularity, antitrust laws have been criticized for hindering the ability of US corporations to compete internationally. There has also been extreme impact on US shores. The Microsoft Antitrust Suit has not only rocked the company, but the entire computer industry, the stock market, and the US justice system as well.The United States VS Microsoft Back in 1975, an intense, visionary man who co-owned a small firm in a budding industry imagined a future where people at every desk in all the offices would have a small computer on which they would use his software. That man was Bill Gates; the company was Microsoft. However even Mr. Gates did not foresee a future in which the chief antitrust prosecutor of the United States and his counterparts in the governments of 20 U.S. states would sue him for charging prices that are too low. In recent comments, Mr. Gates has revealed his navet about the antitrust laws. He seems to have assumed that they were pro-consumer, and he saw his company doing things that helped consumers, even the least technical of consumers, log on to the digital age. 6 The Justice Department charged Microsoft with engaging in anti-competitive and exclusionary p...
