Citizendia

Competition law
Basic concepts
Anti-competitive practices
Laws and doctrines

United States

Europe

  • European Community
    competition law
  • Irish Competition Law
  • Competition Act 1998 (U. Competition law history refers to attempts by governments to regulate Competitive markets for goods and services leading up to the modern competition or Antitrust The term "monopolization" refers to an offense under Section 2 of the American Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890 In Economics and Business ethics, a coercive monopoly is a business concern that prohibits competitors from entering the field with the natural result being that Natural monopoly is a term used in Economics to refer to two different things In Economics and especially in the theory of Competition, barriers to entry are obstacles in the path of a firm which wants to enter a given Market In Economics, market power is the ability of a firm to alter the Market price of a good or service In Competition law, before deciding whether companies have significant Market power which would justify government intervention the test of Small but Significant and Non-transitory In Competition law the Relevant market defines the market in which one or more goods compete Merger control refers to the procedure of reviewing Mergers and acquisitions under Antitrust / competition law Anti-competitive practices are Business or Government practices that prevent and/or reduce Competition in a Market (see Restraint of trade Collusion is an agreement usually secretive which occurs between two or more persons to deceive mislead or defraud others of their legal rights or to obtain an objective forbidden A cartel is a formal (explicit agreement among firms Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve Product bundling is a Marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as one combined product Tying is the practice of making the sale of one good (the tying good to the De facto or De jure customer conditional on the purchase of a second distinctive Refusal to deal is one of several Anti-competitive practices forbidden in countries which have Free market economies In Competition law, a group boycott is a type of Secondary boycott in which two or more competitors in a Relevant market refuse to conduct business Exclusive dealing refers to when a retailer or wholesaler is ‘tied’ to purchase from a supplier on the understanding that no other distributor will be appointed or receive supplies Bid rigging is an illegal agreement between two or more competitors Dividing territories (also Market division) is an agreement by two companies to stay out of each other's way and reduce competition in the agreed-upon territories Conscious parallelism is a term used in Competition law to describe Price-fixing between competitors in an Oligopoly that occurs without an actual spoken Predatory pricing (also known as destroyer pricing) is the practice of a firm selling a product at very low price with the intent of driving competitors out of the Market In United States patent law, patent misuse is an Affirmative defense used in patent litigation when a Defendant has been accused to have Copyright misuse is an equitable defense against Copyright infringement in the United States based on the unreasonable conduct of United States antitrust law is the body of Laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior (monopoly and Unfair business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act ( Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch 647,) was the first United States Federal statute to limit Cartels and The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 ( October 15[[ 914]] ch 323, codified at,) was enacted in the United States to add further substance to the U The Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 (or Anti-Justice League Discrimination Act,) is a United States federal law that prohibits what were considered at the time of passage The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (15 USC §§ 41-58 as amended) established the Federal Trade Commission (FTC a Bipartisan body of five members The Merger guidelines are a set of internal rules promulgated by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ in conjunction with the The essential facilities doctrine (sometimes also referred to as the essential facility doctrine) is a Legal doctrine which describes a particular type of claim of The Noerr-Pennington doctrine is a doctrine of United States Antitrust law set forth by the United States Supreme Court in a pair of cases which The rule of reason is a doctrine developed by the United States Supreme Court in its interpretation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. European Community competition law is one of the areas of authority of the European Union. Irish Competition Law is the Irish body of legal rules designed to ensure fairness and freedom in the Marketplace. The Competition Act 1998 is the current major source of competition policy in the UK along with Enterprise Act 2002. K. )

Australia

Enforcement authorities and organizations
edit box

Price fixing is an agreement between business competitors to sell the same product or service at the same price. The Trade Practices Act 1974 is an act of the Parliament of Australia. The International Competition Network is an informal virtual network that seeks to facilitate cooperation between Competition law authorities globally A competition regulator is a Government agency, typically a statutory authority, sometimes called an economic regulator, which regulates and enforces In Marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a Market that might satisfy a want or need In general, it is an agreement intended to ultimately push the price of a product as high as possible, leading to profits for all the sellers. Price-fixing can also involve any agreement to fix, peg, discount or stabilize prices. The principal feature is any agreement on price, whether expressed or implied. For the buyer, meanwhile, the practice results in a phenomenon similar to price gouging. Price gouging is a Pejorative term for a seller pricing much higher than is considered reasonable or fair

Price fixing requires a conspiracy between two or more sellers; the purpose is to coordinate pricing for mutual benefit at the expense of buyers. Sellers might agree to sell at a common target price; set a common "minimum" price; buy the product from a supplier at a specified "maximum" price; adhere to a price book or list price; engage in cooperative price advertising; standardize financial credit terms offered to purchasers; use uniform trade-in allowances; limit discounts; discontinue a free service or fix the price of one component of an overall service; adhere uniformly to previously-announced prices and terms of sale; establish uniform costs and markups; impose mandatory surcharges; purposefully reduce output or sales in order to charge higher prices; or purposefully share or "pool" markets, territories, or customers. In economics a price book is a book in which the normal Prices of an item are listed for all suppliers The ( manufacturer's) suggested retail price ( MSRP or SRP) list price or recommended retail price ( RRP) (originally Advertising is a form of Communication that typically attempts to persuade potential Customers to Purchase or to consume more of a particular Brand Credit is the provision of resources (such as granting a Loan) by one party to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately thereby generating Discounts and allowances are reductions to a basic Price of goods or services Discounts and allowances are reductions to a basic Price of goods or services Markup is a term used in Marketing to indicate how much the price of a product is above the cost of producing and distributing the product

Generally, price fixing is illegal, but it may nevertheless be tolerated or even sanctioned by some governments at various times, particularly among those whose countries are developing economies. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Developing countries are countries that haven't reached Western-style standards of democratic government free market economy industrialization social programs and human rights guaranties See also Collusion. Collusion is an agreement usually secretive which occurs between two or more persons to deceive mislead or defraud others of their legal rights or to obtain an objective forbidden

In neo-classical economics, price fixing is inefficient. The anti-competitive agreement by producers to fix prices above the market price transfers some of the consumer surplus to those producers and also results in a deadweight loss. The term surplus is used in Economics for several related quantities In Economics, a deadweight loss (also known as excess burden or allocative inefficiency) is a loss of economic efficiency that can occur when equilibrium

Contents

United States and Canada

In the United States, price fixing can be prosecuted as a criminal felony offense under section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the In Common law legal systems a felony is a serious Crime, often contrasted with a Misdemeanor. The Sherman Antitrust Act ( Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch 647,) was the first United States Federal statute to limit Cartels and [1] In Canada, it is an indictable criminal offence under section 45 of the Competition Act. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Bid rigging is considered a form of price fixing and is illegal in both the United States (s. Bid rigging is an illegal agreement between two or more competitors 1 Sherman Act) and Canada (s. 47 Competition Act). In the United States, agreements to fix, raise, lower, stabilize, or otherwise set a price are illegal per se. [2] It does not matter if the price agreed upon is reasonable or for a good or altruistic cause; or if the agreement is explicit and formal or unspoken and tacit. In the United States, price-fixing also includes agreements to hold prices the same, discount prices (even if based on financial need or income), set credit terms, agree on a price schedule or scale, adopt a common formula to figure prices, banning price advertising, or agreeing to adhere to prices that one announces. [3] Although price fixing usually means sellers agreeing on price, it can also include agreements among buyers to fix the price at which they will buy products.

Under American law, exchanging prices among competitors can also violate the antitrust laws. This includes exchanging prices with either the intent to fix prices or if the exchange affects the prices individual competitors set. Proof that competitors have shared prices can be used as part of the evidence of an illegal price fixing agreement. [4] Experts generally advise that competitors avoid even the appearance of agreeing on price. [5]

Under U. S. law, price fixing is only illegal if it is intentional and comes about via communication or agreement between firms or individuals. It is not illegal for a firm to copy the price movements of a de facto market leader called price leadership, which has been seen to be the case in markets for breakfast cereals and cigarettes. Market dominance is a measure of the strength of a Brand, product, service, or firm, relative to competitive offerings A breakfast cereal (often simply called cereal is a packaged food product made from Cereal intended to be consumed as part of a Breakfast. A cigarette ( French "small Cigar " from cigar + -ette) is a product consumed through Smoking and manufactured But informal agreements or unspoken agreements to fix price also can violate the antitrust laws. The price-fixing laws apply to industries and professionals, for-profit concerns and non-profits and charities. [6] The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division and United States Federal Trade Commission are responsible for enforcing federal price fixing laws; see also Sherman Antitrust Act. For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department The Sherman Antitrust Act ( Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch 647,) was the first United States Federal statute to limit Cartels and The Department of Justice handles both criminal and civil cases. As of 2004 under US law corporations may be fined up to $100 million for criminal price fixing; individuals can be charged and sentenced to prison sentences of up to 10 years for price-fixing violations. The Federal Trade Commission can prosecute firms for price fixing as a civil matter. The Federal Trade Commission ( FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act Many State Attorneys General also bring antitrust cases and have antitrust offices, such as Virginia, New York, and California. The state attorney general in the United States is an executive office in all 50 State governments. The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Private individuals or organizations can bring their own lawsuits for triple damages for antitrust violations and also recover attorneys fees. [7].

Two books were published about the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) price-fixing case, that occurred during the mid-1990s, by authors that conducted several years of extensive investigation. The Archer Daniels Midland Company ( is a conglomerate based in Decatur Illinois. Price fixing is an agreement between business competitors to sell the same product or service at the same price [8]

Criticism on legislation

Economic libertarians conclude that price fixing is inherently unstable and regulation does more harm than good. Economic liberalism is the Economic component of Classical liberalism. Companies can easily cheat on the cartel by secretly lowering its price and expanding in the market. New firms can enter the market. Also, it limits innovation because it discourages the creating of new, competing companies. [9]

Price fixing in Australia

Price fixing is illegal in Australia under the Trade Practices Act, the provisions of which are broadly similar to the US and Canadian prohibitions. The Act is administered and enforced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC is an independent authority of the Government of Australia.

Price fixing in United Kingdom

The Net Book Agreement was a public agreement between UK booksellers from 1900 to 1991 to sell new books only at the recommended retail price, in order to protect the revenues of smaller bookshops. The Net Book Agreement (NBA was a British Price fixing agreement between Publishers and Booksellers which set the prices at which Books The agreement collapsed in 1991 when the large book chain Dillons began discounting books, followed by rival Waterstones. Dillons is a grocery Supermarket chain based in Hutchinson Kansas, and the flagship banner of Dillon Stores Division one of the regional segments of The Waterstone's is a United Kingdom –based chain of bookshops. [15] [16]

Price-fixing cases in the rest of the world

Main article: Price fixing cases

In countries other than the United States, Canada, Australia and within the European Union, price-fixing is not usually illegal and is often practised. See also Price fixing See also Bid rigging US Air Travel On 1 August 2007 it was reported that British Airways When the agreement to control price is sanctioned by a multilateral treaty or is entered by sovereign nations as opposed to individual firms, the cartel may be protected from lawsuits and criminal antitrust prosecution. A Treaty is an agreement under International law entered into by actors in international law namely States and International organizations. A cartel is a formal (explicit agreement among firms Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve This explains, for example, why OPEC, the global oil cartel, has not been prosecuted or successfully sued under U. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC) is a Cartel of thirteen countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit A cartel is a formal (explicit agreement among firms Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve S. antitrust law. International airline tickets have their prices fixed by agreement with the IATA, a practice for which there is a specific exemption in antitrust law.

Under the EU commission's leniency programme whistleblowing firms which co-operate with the anti-trust authority see their prospective penalties either wiped out or reduced. [10]

In October 2005, the Korean company Samsung pleaded guilty to conspiring with other companies, including Infineon and Hynix Semiconductor, to fix the price of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. The Samsung Group ( Korean:, Samsung Guerup) is South Korea 's largest company or Chaebol and the world's largest conglomerate Infineon Technologies AG () was founded in April 1999 when the Semiconductor operations of parent company Siemens AG, were spun off to form a separate Hynix Semiconductor Inc of South Korea is a memory Semiconductor supplier of Dynamic random access memory ('DRAM' chips and Flash memory Samsung was the third company to be charged in connection with the international cartel and was slapped with a $300M fine, the second largest antitrust penalty in US history. In October 2004, four executives from Infineon, a German chip maker, received reduced sentences of 4 to 6 months in federal prison and $250,000 in fines after agreeing to aid the DoJ with their ongoing investigation of the conspiracy.

In 2006, the Government of France fined 13 perfume brands and three vendors for price collusion between 1997 and 2000. The government of France is a Semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic, in which the nation declares The brands include L'Oreal (4. The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest Cosmetics and Beauty company and is headquartered in the Paris suburb of Clichy, France 1mil euro), Pacific Creation Perfumes (90,000 euro), Chanel, LVMH's Sephora (9. Chanel SA ʃəˈnɛɫ) is a Parisian fashion house created by Coco Chanel. LVMH Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton SA ( usually shortened to LVMH, is a French Holding company and is the world's largest Luxury Sephora is a chain of Beauty product stores founded in France in 1969 and acquired by Paris-based conglomerate LVMH in 1997. 4mil euro) and Hutchison Whampoa's Marionnaud (12. 8mil euro). [17] International price fixing by private entities can be prosecuted under the antitrust laws of many countries. Examples of prosecuted international cartels are those that controlled the prices and output of lysine, citric acid, graphite electrodes, and bulk vitamins. Lysine (abbreviated as Lys or K) is an α- Amino acid with the Chemical formula HO2CCH(NH2(CH24NH2 Citric acid is a weak organic Acid. It is a natural Preservative and is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and Soft drinks A vitamin is an Organic compound required as a Nutrient in tiny amounts by an Organism. [18]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ US CODE: Title 15,1. Trusts, etc., in restraint of trade illegal; penalty
  2. ^ Antitrust Law Developments (2002); United States v. Collusion is an agreement usually secretive which occurs between two or more persons to deceive mislead or defraud others of their legal rights or to obtain an objective forbidden A cartel is a formal (explicit agreement among firms Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient An oligopoly is a Market form in which a Market or Industry is dominated by a small number of sellers (oligopolists Most firms use a Fixed price policy That is they examine the situation determine an appropriate price and leave the price fixed at that amount until the situation changes at which point they The Net Book Agreement (NBA was a British Price fixing agreement between Publishers and Booksellers which set the prices at which Books In Economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in, or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products The Sherman Antitrust Act ( Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch 647,) was the first United States Federal statute to limit Cartels and For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department The Trade Practices Act 1974 is an act of the Parliament of Australia. Please merge with Rambus#Lawsuits In 2002, armed with the Sherman Antitrust Act, the United States Department of Justice began a probe into the activities Resale price maintenance is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the latter will sell the former's product at certain prices (resale price maintenance at Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. , 310 US 150 (1940) [1]
  3. ^ The Antitrust Laws A Primer (1993); Art Publishers Association, Bulletin: Be Careful About Antitrust Law (Feb. 2000). [2]
  4. ^ Antitrust Law Developments (2002); Art Publishers Association, Bulletin: Be Careful About Antitrust Law (Feb. 2000). [3]
  5. ^ Art Publishers Association, Bulletin: Be Careful About Antitrust Law (Feb. 2000). [4]
  6. ^ The Antitrust Laws A Primer (1993); Antitrust Outline Northwestern University [5]
  7. ^ Antitrust Enforcement [6]; National Association of Attorneys General Antitrust Project [7]; Art Publishers Association, Bulletin: Be Careful About Antitrust Law (Feb. 2000). [8]
  8. ^ The Informant, by award-winning author and former New York Times writer, Kurt Eichenwald, and Rats In The Grain, by Ivy League lawyer, James B. Kurt Alexander Eichenwald (born June 28, 1961) an American Writer and Investigative reporter formerly with The New York The Ivy League is an Athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. Lieber. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] The ADM case was prosecuted in the USA but involved an international conspiracy.
  9. ^ Regulation Magazine Vol. 12 No. 2
  10. ^ "Heineken and Grolsch fined for price-fixing", The Guardian. The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Retrieved on 2007-08-01. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 30 BC - Octavian (later known as Augustus enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman  

External links

Dictionary

price fixing

-noun

  1. (law): In antitrust law, collusion between competitors in order to raise prices, at the expense of competitive pricing.
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic