Cartels

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

Anticompetitive agreements, Cartels, Evidence, Russia

(Elbert, Nazaretsky, Rakov & Co)/ /Leave a comment

On 9th November 2021, the Commercial Court of Moscow will decide an antitrust case between Russian insurance companies (PJSC Rosgosstrakh and LLC Capital Insurance of Life) and the Federal Antimonopoly Services (FAS). The FAS had previously declared an agreement between the two insurance companies invalid. The case concerns the blurring lines between cartels and other agreements in Russian antitrust law. Particularly the standard of proof concerning “other agreements restricting competition” needs to be…

Cartels, Collusion, Green Deal, HBER, Horizontal, Leniency, Settlement, Sustainability, Technological Development

(University of Vienna, Austria) and (General Court)/ /3 Comments

On 8 July 2021, the Commission found that Daimler, BMW and the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche) violated competition law by colluding on technical development in the area of emission cleaning for new passenger diesel cars, fining the latter two a total of €875 million. The current hype regarding competition law and sustainability comes…

Cartels, Ukraine

(Arzinger) and (E+H Attorneys-at-Law)/ /Leave a comment

In October 2019, Ukrainian news feeds ‘exploded’ as the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (‘AMC‘, ‘Committee‘) imposed a record-breaking fine of a total of about €240 million for a long-lasting cigarette cartel (‘AMC Decision‘) (‘Tobacco Case‘). The respondents in the Tobacco Case are four large cigarette manufacturers – British American Tobacco, Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, Imperial…

Anticompetitive agreements, Cartels, Competition law, European Union, Sport

(Universität Düsseldorf)/ /3 Comments

The Super League (SL) might have had the lifespan of a fly, the legal questions it raised will linger on. These legal issues are of particular importance for other sports, considering that comparable questions have been raised in European American football and basketball. Therefore, the legal issues associated with the SL have the potential to…

Abuse of dominance, Cartels, Competition law, Russia

(Elbert, Nazaretsky, Rakov & Co)/ /3 Comments

On March 4, 2021, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the Court) issued its first Guidance for Courts, the so-called Plenum, which specifically concerned competition law. The guidance wants to ensure uniformity of practice in the application of Russia’s competition law, the so-called Antimonopoly Law. Already in 2008, the former Supreme Commercial Court of…

Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Cartels, Competition, Competition enforcement, Competition Law 2020, Competition policy, Concentrations, COVID-19, Damages, Digital competition, Germany, Merger control

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been a very busy year for the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) and courts in the field of competition law in Germany.  The following is merely a selection of interesting developments.  It does not include the recently adopted reform of the Competition Act, which merits its own blog. Generally, the FCO…

Cartels, Competition Commission of India, COVID-19, India

, (Law Chambers of Sonam Mathur)/ /1 Comment

In the last few months, Competition Commission of India (CCI) took what most might view as an extremely lenient stance in two cartel cases; what is known as the most serious violations of competition law. Hard-core cartels are perceived as the “supreme evil of antitrust”[1]. It is then perplexing to understand why such cartels operating…

Cartels, Competition law, Information exchange, Netherlands, Price fixing

(Bird & Bird, The Netherlands) and , (Bird & Bird)/ /1 Comment

Introduction On 27 May 2020 the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (“ACM”) imposed a fine of € 82 million on four cigarette manufacturers for indirect information exchanges in violation of Article 101 TFEU and 6 Dutch Competition Act. It is the first fine ACM has given for indirect information exchanges between competitors. The manufacturers…

Cartels, Competition law, COVID-19, Netherlands

(Bird & Bird, The Netherlands) and (Bird & Bird)/ /1 Comment

Intro / Summary The Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven, “CBb”) reduced a fine imposed by the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (“ACM”) on an unidentified undertaking with 99%, from €1 million to €10.000,-. The ACM asked the court to lower the fine, after being urged by the…

Cartels, Criminal enforcement, Russia

, (ALRUD)/ /2 Comments

Although criminal liability for cartels was introduced into the Russian criminal law more than twenty years ago (in 1997), it is fair to note that, nowadays, this system does not work appropriately, nor effectively. Over the years, criminal sanctions in Russia for cartels have been very rarely used in practice. Every year, the FAS[1] renders…