McGowan, Hood & Felder LLC
Antitrust Litigation/ Price Fixing and Monopoly Litigation

McGowan, Hood & Felder LLC has represented businesses and individuals in antitrust class action suits and optout litigation to recover damages caused by manufacturers and producers of goods and services who fix prices and otherwise violate the antitrust laws. Our South Carolina based firm has represented clients in lawsuits in federal courts of South Carolina and nationwide.

Antitrust Laws

Since 1890, the United States antitrust laws have protected businesses and consumers by prohibiting certain anticompetitive business practices such as conspiracies in restraint of trade and monopolization. There are three major federal antitrust laws: the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act. These laws protect businesses and consumers from the following activities:

• Agreements among competitors to fix prices at artificially high levels to secure increased profits and sales;
• Agreements among competitors to allocate customers or markets in order to eliminate or reduce competition;
• Boycotts within an industry to prevent competitors from entering markets;
• Bid rigging by competitors to determine in advance which competitor will be awarded a particular contract;
• Creation or misuse of monopoly power through wrongfully exclusionary means.

Various state legislatures have enacted parallel legislation, allowing state court actions against businesses engaged in anticompetitive conduct. In many instances, state laws go beyond the protections afforded under the federal statutes, by providing civil litigation remedies for indirect purchasers (i.e., third party purchasers who did not buy directly from the pricefixing or monopolizing entity).

Although the Antitrust laws are enforced by government agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and state attorney general’s offices, individuals and businesses may bring private civil antitrust suits to recover damages as a result of anticompetitive conduct. Often, these private suits are brought as class actions.

Antitrust litigation cases are often substantial in their size and economic impact, many of which involve damages in the tens of millions of dollars, and some of which are much larger in scope. In addition, these cases often involve complicated legal issues and factual patterns, which require the skills, ingenuity, and perseverance of experienced litigators.

Attorneys with McGowan, Hood & Felder LLC have the ability to represent clients who have suffered injury or damages due to anti -trust behaviors of a company. If you are unsure whether you have a case against a company for an anti-trust claim, contact contact South Carolina anti-trust attorneys at McGowan, Hood & Felder, LLC toll free at 877-327-3800. Attorneys in our Rock Hill, Columbia, and Anderson office locations represent clients throughout Charleston, Spartanburg, Florence, Sumter, and Myrtle Beach and all parts of South Carolina.