Topic: CASE STUDY: HARD CORE CARTELS
Order Description
“In the last few years, OECD Member‟s actions against price fixing and other such „hard core‟ cartels have halted billions of dollars in secret overcharges to individual
consumers and business purchasers. The lesson of these successful cases is that such cartels are much more prevalent and harmful to the global economy than previously
believed…. The distorted reality in which such cartels operate was vividly expressed by ringleaders of yet another recent global cartel, who at a (supposedly) secret
meeting laughed among themselves at the “famous saying” that “Our competitors are our friends; our customers are the enemy”. (OECD, Report on the nature and impact of
hard core cartels and sanctions against cartels under national competition laws. Paris 2002).
Examples of Recent Price Fixing Cases from Various Countries
Country Case Affected commerce Sanctions
Australia Installation of fire protection devices More than $A 500 million $A 15.4 million
Canada Snow removal $C 16 million $ C 4.05 million
European Commission Pre-insulated pipe More than 2 billion Euros 92.21 million euros
Germany Power cables “many billions” 127.6 million euros
Japan Ductile iron pipe na na
Korea Military Fuel $US 548.3 million $US 14.6 million
Mexico Lysine na 1.699 million
Spain Sugar 1.1 billion 8.7 million euros
Switzerland German language books “many billions” Na
United States Citric acid 4.8 billion world wide $US 141.89 million
Source: OECD 2002. Only one example was taken from each jurisdiction
Essay question: Discuss why the industries listed in the table might be more prone to the creation of hard-core cartels than a great many other industries. What sort
of industry structure do you think these industries might be? In terms of economic efficiency what harm could these cartels do?
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