Business Regulation
Role of U.S. Constitution in Business Regulation
The United States Constitution and the United States legal system play an important role in business regulations today. Regulation means providing rules and frameworks for business and other activity. The need for more responsive and effective business regulation was part of the reason for the fight for independence and the establishment of the federal government. Since then, businesses have been governed and regulated by the federal government. The purpose of business regulations by the federal government is to primarily protect businesses and its consumers. To protect the weak against the strong e.g. small companies against larger companies or groups of companies that work together to fix prices
For example, Apple and Microsoft, the two biggest names in the computer industry, have control over a larger sector of the market than any other company combined. Because these two corporations control the majority of the market in nearly all of its markets, there is an overwhelming social pressure for regulation. Ungoverned, these two corporations would control nearly all the market, and drive smaller corporations out of business. Instead, regulation exists to preserve competition and the freedom for smaller companies to enter the market. If one company controls the market share, smaller groups will never be able to flourish. Therefore, the federal government has been held responsible. In this case, business regulation provided an appropriate framework for ethical business behavior.
Another example of business regulation is the Privacy Act. A recent case illustrates the scope and limits of employee monitoring. An employer, accused of illegally eavesdropping, was sued for damages, even though the monitored conversation was purportedly business-related. Employees had previously been warned that the company monitored business calls. One day an employee received a call from a friend advising her...
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