15 U.S.C. § 17 — Antitrust laws not applicable to labor organizations
submitted 112 years ago by ch. 323 to r/title-15-COMMERCE-AND-TRADE · 95 words · no verdicts yet
The antitrust laws do not treat a worker's labor as a good to be bought and sold. They cannot be used to ban non-profit labor, farming, or gardening groups helping their own members. These groups and their members are not illegal monopolies just for existing.
This section is a single, undivided provision.
This section states a basic principle: a human being's labor is not a commodity or an article of commerce. Building on that, nothing in the antitrust laws can be used to forbid the existence or operation of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations — as long as those organizations are set up to help their members, and don't have capital stock or operate for profit. The antitrust laws also can't be used to stop or restrain individual members of these organizations from lawfully carrying out the organization's legitimate goals. And these organizations, or their members, cannot be treated or found to be illegal combinations or conspiracies that restrain trade under the antitrust laws.
The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. Nothing contained in the antitrust laws shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations, instituted for the purposes of mutual help, and not having capital stock or conducted for profit, or to forbid or restrain individual members of such organizations from lawfully carrying out the legitimate objects thereof; nor shall such organizations, or the members thereof, be held or construed to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade, under the antitrust laws.
Source credit: (Oct. 15, 1914, ch. 323, § 6, 38 Stat. 731.)
- 1914Enacted · Act of Oct. 15, 1914, ch. 323 · 38 Stat. 731
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 323 on 1914-10-15.
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