antitrust

adjective

an·ti·trust

ˌan-tē-ˈtrəst,

ˌan-ˌtī-

: of, relating to, or being legislation against or opposition to trusts or combinations

specifically : consisting of laws to protect trade and commerce from unlawful restraints and monopolies or unfair business practices

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web Sullivan lives with his wife, Margaret Goodlander, a former counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland who now serves in the Justice Department's antitrust division. —

Tyler Pager, BostonGlobe.com, 16 May 2023 Sullivan lives with his wife, Margaret Goodlander, a former counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland who now serves in the Justice Department’s antitrust division. —

Tyler Pager, Washington Post, 16 May 2023 While the merger could harm competition in some respects, particularly in the fast-growing market for cloud gaming services, concessions by Microsoft were enough to mitigate antitrust concerns stemming from the deal, the European Commission said in a statement. —

Brian Fung, CNN, 15 May 2023 In March, The Enquirer reported the massive deal could face harsher regulatory scrutiny in light of tougher antitrust regulators under President Biden. —

Alexander Coolidge, The Enquirer, 11 May 2023 An Italian antitrust agency raided 26 pasta makers over price-fixing allegations in 2009, fining the companies 12.5 million euros. —

Elizabeth Napolitano, CBS News, 11 May 2023 Shkreli's influence wasn't shaken until January 2020, when the Federal Trade Commission and several state attorneys general sued Shkreli and the company—then called Vyera—for allegedly violating antitrust laws. —

Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 11 May 2023 Keep in mind, though, that House v. NCAA is an antitrust action, meaning that the damages actually awarded may end up trebled to an amount in excess of $3 billion. —

Thomas Baker, Forbes, 5 May 2023 The European Commission is reportedly considering a fresh antitrust probe over Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with its Office suite (Slack complained) and is also looking into a separate complaint (from Amazon and others) about Microsoft’s terms for running its software on non-Microsoft clouds. —

David Meyer, Fortune, 3 May 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'antitrust.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1888, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of antitrust was in 1888

See more words from the same year

Cite this Entry

Style

“Antitrust.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antitrust. Accessed 29 May. 2023.

Copy Citation

Legal Definition

antitrust

adjective

an·ti·trust ˌan-tē-ˈtrəst, ˌan-ˌtī-

: of, relating to, or being legislation against or opposition to business trusts or combinations

specifically : consisting of laws to protect trade and commerce from unlawful restraints and monopolies or unfair business practices see also Clayton Antitrust Act and Sherman Antitrust Act