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.
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2008 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,020, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest municipality in West Virginia. Martinsburg is the county seat of Berkeley County and one of the core cities in the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Martinsburg and Berkeley County are growing very rapidly from the influx of people moving from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.