cartel
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Cartel
Cartel
cartel
cartel
a form of COLLUSION between a group of suppliers aimed at suppressing competition between themselves, wholly or in part. Cartels can take a number of forms. For example, suppliers may set up a sole selling agency which buys up their individual output at an agreed price and arranges for the marketing of these products on a coordinated basis. Another form is where suppliers operate an agreement (see RESTRICTIVE TRADE AGREEMENT) which sets uniform selling prices for their products, thereby suppressing price competition, but with suppliers then competing for market share through PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION strategies. A more comprehensive version of a cartel is the application not only of common selling prices and joint marketing, but also of restrictions on production involving the assignment of specific output quotas to individual suppliers, and the making of coordinated capacity adjustments, thereby either removing over-capacity or extending capacity on a coordinated basis.Cartels are usually established either to exploit the joint marketing power of suppliers to extract MONOPOLY profits, or as a means of preventing cutthroat competition from forcing firms to operate at a loss, often resorted to in times of depressed demand (a so-called ‘crisis cartel’).
A number of factors are crucial to the successful operation of a cartel, in particular the participation of all significant suppliers of the product and their full compliance with the policies of the cartel. Nonparticipation of some key suppliers and ‘cheating’ by cartel members, together with the ability of buyers to switch to substitute products, may well serve to undermine a cartel's ability to control prices. In many countries, most notably the US, UK and EUROPEAN UNION, cartels concerned with price fixing, market sharing and restrictions on production and capacity are prohibited by law. See COMPETITION POLICY, ORGANIZATION OF PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES (OPEC).


Quotas of QA and QB are given to firms A and B respectively where a horizontal line drawn from the intersection of MR and XMC (the line of aggregate marginal costs) intersects MCA and MCB. Profit contributed by each firm is computed by multiplying the number of units produced by the difference between industry price and the firm's average cost at that level of output. The aggregate profit is then divided among the member firms in some agreed manner, not necessarily, it is to be noted, in the same proportion as actually contributed by each of the individual firms. Disputes over the sharing of aggregate profit frequently lead to the break-up of cartels.
cartel
a form of COLLUSION between a group of suppliers aimed at suppressing competition between themselves, wholly or in part. Cartels can take a number of forms. For example, suppliers may set up a sole selling agency that buys up their individual output at an agreed price and arranges for the marketing of these products on a coordinated basis. Another variant is when suppliers operate an agreement (see RESTRICTIVE TRADE AGREEMENT) that sets uniform selling prices for their products, thereby suppressing price competition but with suppliers then competing for market share through PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION strategies. A more comprehensive version of a cartel is the application not only of common selling prices and joint marketing but also restrictions on production, involving the assignment of specific output quotas to individual suppliers, and coordinated capacity adjustments, either removing over-capacity or extending capacity on a coordinated basis.Cartels are usually established with the purpose of either exploiting the joint market power of suppliers to extract MONOPOLY profits or as a means of preventing cut-throat competition from forcing firms to operate at a loss, often resorted to in times of depressed demand (a so-called ‘crisis cartel’). In the former case, a central administration agency could determine the price and output of the industry, and the output quotas of each of the separate member firms, in such a way as to restrict total industry output and maximize the joint profits of the group. Price and output will thus tend to approximate those of a profit-maximizing monopolist. See Fig. 21 .
A number of factors are crucial to the successful operation of a cartel, in particular the participation of all significant suppliers of the product and their full compliance with the policies of the cartel. Non-participation of some key suppliers and ‘cheating’ by cartel members, together with the ability of buyers to switch to substitute products, may well serve to undermine a cartel's ability to control prices. In many countries, including the UK, the USA and the European Union, cartels concerned with price fixing, market sharing and restrictions on production and capacity are prohibited by law. See COMPETITION POLICY (UK), COMPETITION POLICY (EU), ORGANIZATION OF PETROLEUM-EXPORTING COUNTRIES ( OPEC).