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Something I'd like to know about antitrust laws around the world: Suppose two major companies work together, such that their collaborative effort is monopolist
by DoofusOfDeath 6y ago
Something I'd like to know about antitrust laws around the world:
Suppose two major companies work together, such that their collaborative effort is monopolistic. Is such a collaboration subject to antitrust intervention?
- gpm 6y agoThat would typically be known as a cartel and would typically be illegal. Typically.
- Someone 6y agoThat’s called a cartel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel: “Most jurisdictions consider it anti-competitive behavior”
- mrkurt 6y agoMost antitrust laws are binary "is it or isn't it a monopoly". They're usually concerned with abuse of market power. In the US, we have much more stringent antitrust laws than actually get enforced by the DOJ. So the answer is, yes they're subject to antitrust intervention, but only if the people responsible for antitrust intervention choose to intervene.
- AnonC 6y agoThat act (verb/adjective) would be “collusion”, “fixing” (like prices), etc., and the companies called a cartel (noun). It is anti-competitive behavior because it reduces or eliminates free market competition, and is illegal (or at least subject to government scrutiny) in most countries.
- jowiar 6y agoAbsolutely. The Apple-Google-Intel-Adobe collusion to keep salaries down was an example of this.
- tptacek 6y agoYou are describing a trust.
- narag 6y agoA trust is a group of companies on the same business. But what about an agreement between a provider and a supplier that gives one of them a huge advantage to the point of crushing competitors? Would it be also covered by antitrust laws?
- tptacek 6y agoThey don't have to be in the same business, just organized to suppress competition. The original trusts were groups of different companies that shared board members (trustees).