| Price-fixing |
Shopping Fixing |
Limousines in Price |
Website Links For Price |
Information AboutPrice-fixing |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PRICE FIXING | |
| competition | |
| pricing | |
| commercial crimes | |
| anti-competitive behaviour | |
|
Methods of price fixing can include selling at a common target price; setting a common "minimum" price; buying the product from a supplier at a specified "maximum" price; adhering to a Price Book or List Price ; engagment in cooperative price Advertising ; standardizing Financial Credit terms offered to purchasers; using uniform Trade-in Allowances ; limiting Discount s; discontinuing a free service or fixing the price of one component of an overall service; adhering uniformly to previously-announced prices and terms of sale; establishing uniform costs and Markups ; imposing mandatory Surcharge s; purposefully reducing output or sales; or purposefully sharing or "pooling" markets, territories, or customers. 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 . PRICE-FIXING IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA The United States and Canada are the only two countries in the world where price fixing can be prosecuted as a Felony . Bid Rigging is considered a form of price fixing and is illegal in the United States. Under U.S. law, price fixing is only illegal if it is intentional and comes about via communication and specific agreement between firms. 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 Cereal s and Cigarette s. The United States Department Of Justice Antitrust Division is responsible for upholding United States price fixing laws; see also Sherman Antitrust Act ). 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. PRICE-FIXING CASES IN THE REST OF THE WORLD In countries other than the United States and Canada, price-fixing is not usually illegal and is often practiced. 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. This explains, for example, why OPEC , the global Oil Cartel , has not been prosecuted or successfully sued under U.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 . In October 2005, the Korea n 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. 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 , Citric Acid , graphite electrodes, and bulk Vitamins . {Link without Title} SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|