What is the role of antitrust laws?

Antitrust laws are designed to promote fair competition and to prevent monopolistic practices that can harm consumers and inhibit market efficiency. These laws aim to ensure that no single entity can dominate a market to the extent that it can manipulate prices, limit choices, or stifle innovation. By preventing monopolies and promoting competitive markets, antitrust laws help facilitate a healthy economic environment where businesses can thrive through competition.

This means that the focus of antitrust legislation is on preventing actions that would create or maintain a monopoly or that would otherwise harm competition in the marketplace, which is why the answer is correct. These laws empower governmental organizations to investigate and act against businesses that engage in anti-competitive practices like price-fixing or market allocation.

In contrast, the other options describe roles that contradict the fundamental purpose of antitrust laws. Monopolistic practices and restricting competition are goals of businesses that antitrust laws actively work against, while regulating prices is not the primary function of these laws, which is more about maintaining a competitive landscape rather than controlling prices directly.