Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States

A 1911 U.S. Supreme Court decision held that Standard Oil violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company dissolved into separate firms.

Rule of reason: An antitrust standard that evaluates whether a restraint of trade is unreasonable under its circumstances. The Court interpreted the Sherman Act to prohibit only restraints it judged unreasonable.
Standard Oil: An American oil company founded by John D. Rockefeller and once dominant in refining, transport, and marketing. The corporation named in the case had consolidated much of the U.S. petroleum industry.
Standard Oil of California: A petroleum company formed from assets assigned to it in the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil. It was one of the successor companies created by the dissolution decree.
Per se rule: An antitrust doctrine treating certain kinds of conduct as illegal without a detailed inquiry into effects. It contrasts with the case’s context-sensitive assessment of whether restraints were unreasonable.
Sherman Antitrust Act: A 1890 U.S. federal law prohibiting contracts, combinations, and conspiracies that restrain trade, and monopolization. The Court applied this statute to Standard Oil’s business practices.
John D. Rockefeller: An American industrialist who built Standard Oil into a dominant petroleum company. His business strategy and company leadership shaped the practices challenged in court.
ExxonMobil: An American multinational oil and gas corporation formed in 1999 through the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Both companies trace corporate ancestry to separate Standard Oil successors.
Chicago school of economics: An economic tradition emphasizing price theory, market efficiency, and consumer welfare in antitrust analysis. Its later influence shifted antitrust attention toward economic effects beyond the ruling’s broader language.
Monopolization: The acquisition or maintenance of monopoly power through exclusionary conduct rather than competition on the merits. The decision treated Standard Oil’s methods of securing monopoly control as unlawful.
Ida Tarbell: An American journalist whose series on Standard Oil exposed its business practices to a mass audience. Her reporting helped intensify public scrutiny of the company before the federal case.

Linked from 7 pages