Cartel and Related Topics

Judge Coke in the 17th century thought that general restraints on trade were unreasonable.

Competition law

Field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies.

Elizabeth I assured monopolies would not be abused in the early era of globalization.

Senatorial Round House by Thomas Nast, 1886

There is considerable controversy among WTO members, in green, whether competition law should form part of the agreements

John Stuart Mill believed the restraint of trade doctrine was justified to preserve liberty and competition.

Paul Samuelson, author of the 20th century's most successful economics text, combined mathematical models and Keynesian macroeconomic intervention. He advocated the general success of the market but backed the American government's antitrust policies.

Scottish Enlightenment philosopher Adam Smith was an early enemy of cartels.

The economist's depiction of deadweight loss to efficiency that monopolies cause

prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business. This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels.

Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty? (1920) by George Howard Earle Jr.

Anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given level by controlling supply and demand.

When the agreement to control price is sanctioned by a multilateral treaty or is entered by sovereign nations as opposed to individual firms, the cartel may be protected from lawsuits and criminal antitrust prosecution.

Collusion

Deceitful agreement or secret cooperation between two or more parties to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others of their legal right.

To differentiate from a cartel, collusive agreements between parties may not be explicit; however, the implications of cartels and collusion are the same.

OPEC

Intergovernmental organization of countries.

OPEC Conference delegates at Swissotel, Quito, Ecuador, December 2010.

OPEC headquarters in Vienna
(2009 building).

An undersupplied US gasoline station, closed during the oil embargo in 1973.

A woman uses wood in a fireplace for heat. A newspaper headline in the foreground shows a story regarding a lack of heating oil in the community.

Fluctuations of OPEC net oil export revenues since 1972

One of the hundreds of Kuwaiti oil fires set by retreating Iraqi troops in 1991

Fluctuations of Brent crude oil price, 1988–2015

OPEC members' net oil export revenues, 2000–2020

Gusher well in Saudi Arabia: conventional source of OPEC production

$Shale "fracking" in the US: important new challenge to OPEC market share$

Sulfur content and API gravity of different types of crude oil.

Economists have characterized OPEC as a textbook example of a cartel that cooperates to reduce market competition, but one whose consultations are protected by the doctrine of state immunity under international law.

Holm Arno Leonhardt

Holm Arno Leonhardt -- sometimes abbreviated to Holm A. Leonhardt, born October 12, 1952—is a German scientist in the fields of International Relations and economic history, especially in the realm of cartel history and theory.

Guild

Association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area.

One of the legacies of the guilds: the elevated Windsor Guildhall originated as a meeting place for guilds, as well as a magistrates' seat and town hall.

Traditional hand forged guild sign of a glazier — in Germany. These signs can be found in many old European towns where guild members marked their places of business. Many survived through time or staged a comeback in industrial times. Today they are restored or even newly created, especially in old town areas.

Coats of arms of guilds in a town in the Czech Republic displaying symbols of various European medieval trades and crafts

The medieval Merchant Guild House in Vyborg, Russia

A center of urban government: the Guildhall, London (engraving, c. 1805)

The Haarlem Painter's Guild in 1675, by Jan de Bray.

An example of the last of the British Guilds meeting rooms c. 1820

The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen, belonging to: a professional association, a cartel, and/or a secret society.

Monopoly

Market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular thing.

Surpluses and deadweight loss created by monopoly price setting

A 1902 anti-monopoly cartoon depicts the challenges that monopolies may create for workers

Likewise, a monopoly should be distinguished from a cartel (a form of oligopoly), in which several providers act together to coordinate services, prices or sale of goods.

Otis Worldwide

American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment.

In February 2007, European Union regulators fined Otis Elevator €225 million (US$295.8 million) for being part of a price-fixing cartel in the Belgian, Dutch, Luxembourg, and German markets.

Seven Sisters (oil companies)

"Seven Sisters" was a common term for the seven transnational oil companies of the "Consortium for Iran" oligopoly or cartel, which dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s.

Kone

International engineering and service company employing over 60,000 personnel across 60 countries worldwide.

The former Kone corporate offices in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki

Flags at Kone corporate headquarters, built in 2001 in Keilaniemi, Espoo, Finland

In total, the industry received 1 billion EUR fine for cartel activity across Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.