1. The US Federal Trade Commission has prepared the following information to help consumers understand the antitrust laws and protect consumer .......... — the freedom to choose goods and services in an open marketplace at a price and quality that fit the consumer's needs.

2. A .......... agreement on price among competitors — where the agreement is not reasonably related to the firms' business operations — is illegal.

3. Price similarities also can result from normal economic conditions: for example, .......... competition can drive prices down to a common level.

4. As for the appearance of uniformly high prices, .......... may not be the only basis for the situation: prices may increase if consumer demand for a product is particularly high and the supply is limited.

5. An agreement to restrict production or output is illegal because reducing the supply of a product or service .......... drives up its price.

6. A group .......... — an agreement among competitors not to deal with another person or business — violates the law if it is used to force another party to pay higher prices.

7. Market division — agreements among competitors to divide sales territories or .......... customers — are presumed to be illegal.

8. Restrictions on price advertising can be illegal if they .......... consumers of important information.

9. A professional .......... of ethics may be unlawful if it unreasonably restricts the ways professionals may compete.

10. Vertical price-fixing — an agreement between a supplier and a dealer that fixes the minimum resale price of a product — is a .......... antitrust violation.