GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION

AND CONTROL OF BUSINESS

Lesson 2
 QUESTION…

Try to identify some of the ways

in which government can regulate
business.
Governments regulate by:
 Fostering economic success
 Creating laws that protect
- competition
- business agreements and creative properties
- production process

Regulation takes place on the Federal (country), State and Local

Government (cities, townships, towns) levels.
How governments can regulate business?
 Interstate Commerce:
- business that takes place between states
- overseen by state government
 QUESTION…

Can you identify any example of

interstate commerce?
 FOUR WAYS IN WHICH GOVERNMENT
CAN REGULATE BUSINESS
1. Protecting competition
- Ensuring that consumer choice is not limited.
a. Monopoly
- When a company controls an industry or is the only one
to offer a product or service
- created by establishing a TRUST – group of
companies that band together to form a monopoly and cut out
competition
 FOUR WAYS IN WHICH GOVERNMENT
CAN REGULATE BUSINESS
1. Protecting competition
b. Oligopoly
- when a small number of companies control an industry

c. Antitrust Laws
- laws that allow the federal government to break up
monopolies
> overseen by Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
 FOUR WAYS IN WHICH GOVERNMENT
CAN REGULATE BUSINESS
2. Protecting Business Agreements:
a. Contract – a legally enforceable agreement
between two or more parties
- can be written, verbal or handshake
> Breach of Contract – when one party falls to live
up the terms of a contract
 QUESTION…

What kind of contract is easiest to

prove a breach of contract
occurred?
 FOUR WAYS IN WHICH GOVERNMENT
CAN REGULATE BUSINESS
3. Protecting Creative Properties
a. Copyright – the legal right of artists to own their creation,
can last up to 70 years until after the
original creator’s death

b. Patent – legal grant for the sole right to own an

invention, lasts for 20 years after the inventor filed
application with US Patent and Trademark Office
 FOUR WAYS IN WHICH GOVERNMENT
CAN REGULATE BUSINESS
3. Protecting Creative Properties
c. Trademark – a name, symbol, or characteristic that
identifies a product, cannot be copied if
registered appropriately
 QUESTION…

Can you identify an example of

each?
 FOUR WAYS IN WHICH GOVERNMENT
CAN REGULATE BUSINESS
4. Regulating the Production Process
The government regulates the production process by
passing laws that protect the environment and
workers.

> The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the

manufacture and sale of drugs in the country.