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.
Mason, also known as Mason City is a town in Mason County, West Virginia, in the United States. The population was 1,064 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Point Pleasant, WV–OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. Mason was initially known as Waggener's Bottom. It was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1856, and named for Mason County, which was named for George Mason, a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. Mrs. Joanie S. Strode became the first female mayor in West Virginia when she was appointed in her husband's place in 1932. She served as the mayor of Mason until the end of her husband's term in 1933.