Cartel
Group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market.
- Cartel401 related topics
Monopoly
Market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular thing.
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.
Price fixing
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.
Syndicate
Self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
A sales syndicate is a cartel with a joint sales agency.
Competition law
Field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies.
prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business. This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels.
OPEC
Intergovernmental organization of countries.
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.
Guild
Association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area.
The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen, belonging to: a professional association, a cartel, and/or a secret society.
Mergers and acquisitions
In corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred or consolidated with other entities.
One strategy to keep prices high and to maintain profitability was for producers of the same good to collude with each other and form associations, also known as cartels.
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.