A cartel is a formal agreement among firms in an oligopolistic industry.
Cartel members may agree on such matters as prices, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid-rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits or combination of these. Cartel in this broad sense is synonymous with “explicit” forms of collusion. Cartels are formed for the mutual benefit of member firms.
The theory of “cooperative” oligopoly provides the basis for analyzing the formation and the economic effects of cartels. Generally speaking, cartels or cartel behaviour attempts to emulate that of monopoly by restricting industry output, raising or fixing prices in order to earn higher profits.
Source: OECD
73d Lunch Talk of the Global Competition Law Center Thursday, March 19, 2015 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM Joint and Several Liability for Cartel Fines: Lessons from Gigaset and Siemens Austria Onno BROUWER, Freshfields Ralf SAUER, Legal Service, European Commission Moderator: Bernd MEYRING, Linklaters and GCLC Programme: 12:00 – 12:30: Sandwich lunch and socializing…
BY CHARLES TINGLEY, DAVIES WARD PHILLIPS & VINEBERG LLP On February 4, 2015, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that relevant factual information proffered to the Crown in order to qualify for immunity or leniency under the Competition Bureau’s cartel Immunity and Leniency Programs is not protected from disclosure to accused persons by either…
The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has recently published its draft Annual Plan for 2015/2016, its second year of operation after assuming the functions of the Competition Commission and the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) on 1 April 2014. Together with a Strategic Assessment of the risks that consumers and markets…
Co-authored by Jay Modrall and Shan Hu. The authors of this article would like to thank Marc Waha, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, for his insightful comments. 1 Introduction The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has recently stepped up its cartel enforcement activities and for the first time has published non-confidential versions of…
On 10 June 2014, the Polish Parliament adopted a significant set of amendments to the Polish Competition Law Act (the “Act”). Having received Presidential approval on 30 June 2014, the amended Act is now waiting for publication. The changes are expected to come into force relatively soon. The amendments will take effect 6 months after…
Co-authored by Nicola Boyle, Tom Bolster and Boris Bronfentrinker, Hausfeld On 5 June 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) clarified the full extent of cartel damages that can be recovered in Europe. The ECJ ruled that the civil liability of cartelists also extends to so-called “umbrella pricing”. This term describes pricing…
The judgement in Commission v EnBW (C-365/12, 27 February 2014) has already awakened a lot of interest. The facts are very simple. EnBW, an energy-distribution company requires access to the cartel file documents related to the prosecution of a number of GIS producers in 2007 and the Commission rejects this application. Following the action for…
Co-authored by Lesley Hannah, Stella Gartagani and Boris Bronfentrinker, Hausfeld On 17 April 2014, a major step was taken in facilitating the pursuit of cartel damages claims across Europe. The European Parliament approved the European Commission’s proposal for a new Directive that will harmonise national rules in order to make it easier for consumers and…
Private damages litigation is an important complement to public enforcement of UK and EU competition law by the European Commission and national competition authorities (“NCAs”), such as the UK’s newly formed Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”). Whilst there has been a noticeable increase in private litigation seen in the UK courts, whether ‘follow-on’ or ‘standalone…
Earlier today I read remarks delivered by European Commission competition head Joaquin Almunia in Brussels on the topic of cartel enforcement (see: Fighting against cartels: A priority for the present and for the future). He discussed, among other things, recent European cartel cases, fines achieved, cartels in innovation and fast moving markets and recent detection…
