introduction of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, in response to growing monopolies and anti-competitive firms in the 1880s, antitrust agencies regularly use market concentration as an important metric to evaluate potential violations of competition laws. Since the passing of the act, these metrics have also been used to evaluate potential mergers' effect on overall market competition and overall consumer welfare. The first major example of the Sherman Act being imposed on a company to prevent potential consumer abuse through excessive market concentration was in the 1911 court case of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States where after determining Standard Oil was monopolising the petroleum industry, the court-ordered remedy was the breakup into 34 smaller companies. Modern Usage Modern regulatory bodies state that an increase in market concentration can inhibit innovation, and have detrimental effects on overall consumer welfare. The United States Department of Justice determined that any merger that increases the HHI by more than 200 proposes a legitimate concern to antitrust laws and consumer welfare . Therefore, when considering potential mergers, especially in horizontal integration applications, antitrust agencies will consider the whether the increase in efficiency is worth the potential decrease in consumer welfare, through increased costs or reduction in quantity produced. Whereas the European Commission is unlikely to contest any horizontal integration, which post merger HHI is under 2000 (except in special circumstances). Modern examples of market concentration being utilised to protect consumer welfare include: 2014 Attempted purchase of Time Warner Cable by Comcast, was abandoned after the US DOJ threatened to file an antitrust lawsuit, citing that the HHI of the national television industry would increase by 639 points to a HHI of 2454, and feared this merger would lead to increased prices for consumers. Halliburton and Baker Hughes (at the time the 2nd and 3rd largest oilfield services companies, respectively) attempted 2014 merger was blocked by the US DOJ, after fears that the merger would increase costs for oil companies in 23 separate product markets, and therefore would stiffen innovation in the oil sector. General Electric's attempted acquisition of Honeywell in 2001, was approved in the United States, however the condition's that European Commission enforced for the approval were too impactful for General Electric, and was abandoned. This is an example on how different regulatory bodies view mergers. Motivation for Firms The relationship between market concentration and profitability can be divided into