新聞上常看到大型跨國企業如Facebook、Google、Apple被美國政府以「反托拉斯法」告上法院，又或是台灣公司廣明和美國公司惠普達成和解，廣明從「反托拉斯告訴」中脫身，這到底是指什麼呢？
其實反托拉斯法就是「禁止壟斷」的概念。1882年，美國40家石油相關企業集體用信託（Trust） 的方式操控價格，後來被美國政府發現，以當時的《休曼反壟斷法案》（ShermanAct） 起訴這些集體信託企業。之後美國的禁止壟斷法案就被稱為「反托拉斯法（Anti trust）」。
全球各國都有自己的反壟斷法，只是名字不一樣。美國叫「反托拉斯法」，日本叫《獨佔禁止法》，台灣叫《公平交易法》。雖然目前全球還沒有一套通用的法律處理跨國企業壟斷情形。但各國已經開始用自家的反壟斷法對抗企業的不當聯合行為。

We often seenews reports about big multinational corporations such as Facebook, Google, and Apple being sued for violating Antitrust Laws. Reports said that Quanta Storage and HP settled out of court, and that as a result Quanta Storage avoided the antitrust lawsuit. What exactly does anti-trust mean? 

Basically, the antitrust laws are intended to prevent monopolies. In 1882, 40 oil companies manipulated oil prices with a collective business trust, later discovered by the U.S. government. They were sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act at that time. In the US, the modern law governing monopolies is referred to by its original name, “antitrust law.” 

Most countries have antitrust laws, but with different names. It’s called Antitrust Law in the US, Anti-monopoly Law in Japan, and Fair Trade Law in Taiwan. Currently, there is no applicable international law governing multinational monopolies. But many countries are starting to take concerted action to fight against these big monopolies using domestic laws.