Cartel

An arrangement between competitors to limit the terms on which they compete with one another. Cartels often are based on price fixing, but they can operate in other ways, by for example, non-aggression pacts, i.e., agreements not to enter another market (known as market-partitioning), customer allocation (e.g., taking turns to bid), bid rigging, agreements not to make costly improvements to products and group boycotts, etc. All such practices are usually prohibited under Competition Law or Antitrust law.

Related Terms