Antitrust and Trade Regulation laws aim to promote free competition in the marketplace. Agreements or cooperative efforts by two or more entities that affects or restrains competitors is illegal under these laws. The Sherman Act makes illegal any contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce and makes monopolies and attempts, combinations, or conspiracies to monopolize illegal. The Clayton Act regulate price discrimination, tying and exclusive dealing contracts, stock acquisition and interlocking directorates.
Springfield is the largest city on the Connecticut River and the county seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. In the 2000 census, the city population was 154,082 with an estimated 2008 population of 150,640. It is the third largest city in Massachusetts and fourth largest in New England. Springfield has two nicknames — The City of Homes and The City of Firsts. Historically the first Springfield in the United States, it is the largest city in Western Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley. Springfield is notable as the birthplace of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, as well as the city where James Naismith invented basketball. It is home to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Springfield Falcons AHL ice hockey team. It also holds the western world's largest collection of Chinese cloisonné at the G.W. Vincent Smith Art Museum. The Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of three counties: Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin. At the 2000 census, the Springfield MSA had a population of 680,014 (though a July 1, 2007, estimate placed the population at 682,657). It is also part of a larger metropolitan area known as the Northeast megalopolis.