What is a cartel and what penalties apply to them?
Generally speaking, a cartel is an anticompetitive arrangement between two or more businesses. Common forms of cartel conduct are: • price fixing is a common form of cartel conduct. It occurs when competing businesses make an agreement that has the purpose or effect of fixing, controlling or maintaining the price of goods or services • market sharing, which refers to agreements between competitors that divide up the market so that the participants are sheltered from competition • bid rigging, where two or more competitors agree they will not compete genuinely with each other for particular tenders, allowing one of the participants in the agreement to win the tender • output controls agreed on between companies can occur in the form of production or sales quota arrangements which involve an agreement between competitors to limit the volume of particular goods or services available on the market. They have the effect of inflating prices in the market. This type of conduct, between otherw
