There’s a difference between researching your competitors prices (to set your prices accordingly) and coming to an agreement with your competitors to set a part

There’s a difference between researching your competitors prices (to set your prices accordingly) and coming to an agreement with your competitors to set a particular price. The former is market research (to which your competitor is free to respond) but the latter is price fixing. Price fixing is illegal because it’s anticompetitive: it reduces competition in the market directly by forming a conspiracy or cartel against the public.