Abstract: The article presents information on some of the recent court cases related to commercial law in the U.S. The tremendous increase in recent years in the importance and scope of cooperative marketing associations has brought to the fore questions of their legality as combinations in restraint of trade, or as organizations tending toward monopoly. At the early common law, any contract in restraint of trade was regarded as void. But changing economic conditions led to altered legal conceptions under the federal and state anti-trust laws, it seems that monopoly or restraint are objectionable only when they actually result in unduly enhancing prices, limiting production, and lowering quality.

　　Subjects: MARKETING cooperatives; TRADE regulation; COMMERCIAL law; ANTITRUST law; UNITED States; LAW -- United States; COMMON law