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Independent candidates tried (and failed) to use antitrust laws against the major parties

While third-party and independent candidates have repeatedly tried to use federal antitrust laws to break up the "duopoly" of the Republican and Democratic parties, federal courts have systematically thrown these cases out.
The most notable, high-profile battlefield for this legal strategy has been the fight against the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). [1]

Johnson v. Commission on Presidential Debates (2016)
The definitive legal precedent on this issue came from a joint lawsuit filed by Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Jill Stein (Green Party). [2]

• The Lawsuit: Following the 2012 election, Johnson and Stein sued the CPD, the Republican National Committee (RNC), and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). They alleged that the CPD’s rule—which requires a candidate to hit 15% in national polls to be invited to televised debates—was an illegal, anticompetitive agreement designed to monopolize the "presidential debate market" under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. [1, 3]
• The Financial Injury Argument: To try and prove economic harm (which antitrust laws require), the third-party candidates argued that being locked out of the debates caused them to lose "millions of dollars' worth of publicity, campaign contributions, and matching funds", as well as the actual white-collar salary they would have earned if they won the presidency. [4]
• The Failure: U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer dismissed the case in 2016. She famously ruled that "antitrust laws govern commercial markets and not political activity." Furthermore, she ruled that the candidates lacked standing because their financial injuries were "wholly speculative" and caused by a lack of popular support, not an antitrust violation. [1, 2]
• The Appeal: The candidates appealed, but in August 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal, officially closing the door on using the Sherman Act to force entry into presidential debates. [4, 5]

Why Judges Reject These Antitrust Lawsuits
When independent candidates attempt these lawsuits, judges apply a consistent three-step legal framework to dismiss them: