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. |