Unreasonable Restraint of Trade Law and Legal Definition
If the direct and necessary or natural effect of a contract or combination among producers and sellers of a commodity is to restrain competition and control prices to the injury of the public when all the powers of the contract or combination shall have been exercised, the contract or combination is in unreasonable restraint of trade. A contract which is in unreasonable restraint of trade is void at common law, because contrary to public policy. [Pocahontas Coke Co. v. Powhatan Coal & Coke Co., 60 W. Va. 508 (W. Va. 1906)].
