The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) v. A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co., et al., 1944, was a case in which the FTC accused several corn syrup manufacturers of price-fixing and collusion to control market prices. The defendants included major companies such as Corn Products Refining Company, A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company, and others who were alleged to have violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act by engaging in unfair methods of competition. The Supreme Court ruled against these corporations stating that their actions constituted an unlawful restraint on trade under the Sherman Antitrust Act and upheld FTC's cease-and-desist order against them for conspiring to fix prices and divide markets among themselves for corn sugar products sold interstate commerce. This decision underscored the role of federal agencies like FTC in regulating business practices to prevent anti-competitive behavior detrimental to consumers' interests.

In the dissenting opinion for Federal Trade Commission v. A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co., Justice Robert H. Jackson disagreed with the majority's decision to uphold a cease and desist order issued by the FTC against corn syrup manufacturers, including A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co., who had been accused of price-fixing in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA). Justice Jackson argued that there was insufficient evidence to prove an unlawful conspiracy or agreement among these companies to fix prices, as required under antitrust law standards at that time; instead, he suggested that their similar pricing could be attributed to parallel business behavior in response to market conditions rather than collusion. He also expressed concern about expanding FTC’s authority beyond its statutory mandate by allowing it to regulate competition based on mere suspicions or assumptions without concrete proof of anti-competitive conduct.