Unfair Trade Practices

Unfair trade practices are business practices that are considered fraudulent, deceptive, or injurious. While definitions often focus on the effect these practices have on a consumer, the term is also used [Page 1815]in discussing certain actions by companies that involve unfair competition with other companies or individuals, when the harm is mainly to the competitor. This entry discusses examples of alleged unfair trade practices in the mass media that involve antitrust concerns and copyright law.

One of the most consequential moments in mass media’s legal history is the Paramount Case of 1948, otherwise known as the Hollywood Antitrust Case. Following a decades-long legal battle between the U.S. Department of Justice and the major Hollywood film studios, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Paramount ...