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A '''cartel''' is an agreement among two or more firms in the same industry to co-operate in fixing prices and/or carving up the market and restricting the amount of output they produce. It is particularly common when there is an [[oligopoly]]. The aim of such collusion is to increase profit by reducing competition. Identifying and breaking up cartels is an important part of the competition policy overseen by [[antitrust laws]] in most countries, although proving the existence of a cartel is rarely easy, as firms are usually not so careless as to put agreements to [[collude]] on paper. The desire to form cartels is strong; however, most cartels are unstable.

A '''cartel''' is an agreement among two or more firms in the same industry to co-operate in fixing prices and/or carving up the market and restricting the amount of output they produce. It is particularly common when there is an [[oligopoly]]. The aim of such [[collusion]] is to increase profit by reducing competition. Identifying and breaking up cartels is an important part of the competition policy overseen by [[antitrust laws]] in most countries, although proving the existence of a cartel is rarely easy, as firms are usually not so careless as to put agreements to [[collude]] on paper. The desire to form cartels is strong; however, most cartels are unstable.

[[OPEC]] is one example of a large [[globalism|global]] cartel; if one member of the cartel breaks the agreement on price fixing, it's not just an oil company that risks [[bankruptcy]] in a price war, but a whole country.

[[OPEC]] is one example of a large [[globalism|global]] cartel; if one member of the cartel breaks the agreement on price fixing, it's not just an oil company that risks [[bankruptcy]] in a price war, but a whole country.