fix prices - when competitors agree on pricing instead of competing against each other.market share - when competitors agree to divide a market between themselves so they don't have to compete.control output - when competitors agree to limit the amount or type of goods and services available..
What is a cartel in EU competition law?
A cartel is a group of independent companies which join together to fix prices, to limit production or to share markets or customers between them. Cartelists can also collude on product quality or innovation. Action against cartels is a specific type of antitrust enforcement..
What is the difference between competition and a cartel?
A cartel agreement is an agreement between competitors with the intention of hindering or restricting competition, or creating false competition. Cartel agreements can also exist between suppliers and buyers, for example on the retail prices. Cartels disadvantage consumers and obstruct competition..
A cartel is an anti-competitive agreement or concerted practice between two or more rival firms aimed at coordinating their competitive behaviour on the market or influencing other parameters of competition through practices that include but are not limited to: the direct or indirect fixing of prices or other trading
In the oil and gas industry, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is often used as an example of a cartel. Although there is debate around whether the economic evidence demonstrates it is a true cartel, OPEC's member countries do exert market influence.
The objectives of cartels are to increase their profits or to stabilize market sales. They do this by fixing the price of goods, by limiting market supply or by other means. Monopolies are not cartels, because in a monopoly there is only one independent company.
A cartel is a group of similar, independent companies which agree (expressly or tacitly) together to fix prices, to limit production or development, to share markets or customers between them or other similar type of restriction of competition. Action against cartels is a specific type of antitrust enforcement.
Are hard core cartels always contrary to competition law?
It is uncontentious that hard core cartels are always contrary to competition law, an observation that holds true in every system that has antitrust provisions regulating restrictive agreements. 1 Yet it is equally accepted that literalism is not a hallmark of contemporary antitrust policy.
What are the consequences of a cartel agreement?
These sanctions can take the form of substantial administrative fines or, in some countries, the criminal sanction of imprisonment. The prospect of incarceration can be a powerful deterrent for businesspeople considering entering into a cartel agreement. But are all agreements among competitors harmful? .
What are the sanctions against cartels?
An important supplement to fines against organisations for cartel conduct is sanctions against individuals for their participation in the conspiracy. These sanctions can take the form of substantial administrative fines or, in some countries, the criminal sanction of imprisonment.
What is hardcore Cartel prosecution?
Hardcore cartel prosecution is a priority policy objective for the OECD. Increasingly, the prohibition against hardcore cartels is now considered to be an indispensable part of domestic competition law. Cartels are very difficult to detect.
Competition law and cartels
Former Colombian drug cartel
The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca. Its founders were the brothers Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela and José Santacruz Londoño. They broke away from Pablo Escobar and his Medellín associates in 1988, when Hélmer Pacho Herrera joined what became a four-man executive board that ran the cartel.
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude
Mutually beneficial collusion among competing corporations
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers to limit competition and increase prices by creating artificial shortages through low production quotas, stockpiling, and marketing quotas. Cartels can be vertical or horizontal but are inherently unstable due to the temptation to defect and falling prices for all members. Additionally, advancements in technology or the emergence of substitutes may undermine cartel pricing power, leading to the breakdown of the cooperation needed to sustain the cartel. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Most jurisdictions consider it anti-competitive behavior and have outlawed such practices. Cartel behavior includes price fixing, bid rigging, and reductions in output. The doctrine in economics that analyzes cartels is cartel theory. Cartels are distinguished from other forms of collusion or anti-competitive organization such as corporate mergers.
A compulsory cartel or forced cartel is a cartel that is established or maintained by an administrative order or by a legal directive. The interference of policies on these associations of entrepreneurs of the same trade varied. It ranged from a mere decision to establish a cartel or to maintain an existing one, to a strict state control.
Irish Competition Law is the Irish body of legal rules designed to ensure fairness and freedom in the marketplace. The main purpose of Irish competition law is to enhance consumer welfare. The key provisions of Irish competition law: (a) usually outlaw anti-competitive arrangements between businesses and economic operators ; (b) always outlaw the abuse of dominance by undertakings; (c) control certain mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures; and (d) control certain activities in the grocery sector.
The Sinaloa Cartel
Transnational drug-trafficking organization
The Sinaloa Cartel, also known as the Guzmán-Zambada Organization, the Federation, the Blood Alliance, or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, international organized crime syndicate that specializes in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering. It was established in Mexico during the late 1980s as one of a various number of subordinate plazas operating under a predecessor organization known as the Guadalajara Cartel. It is currently headed by Ismael Zambada García and is based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in many world regions but primarily in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Baja California, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua. and presence in a number of other regions in Latin America as well as in cities across the U.S. The United States Intelligence Community generally considers the Sinaloa Cartel to be the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world, making it perhaps even more influential and capable than Pablo Escobar's infamous Medellín Cartel of Colombia was during its prime. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center and other sources within the U.S. the Sinaloa Cartel is primarily involved in the distribution of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl, cannabis and MDMA.
