Global Price Fixing : Our Customers are the Enemy

Online-Ressource (624p)

online resource

Studies in Industrial Organization ; 24

1. IntroductionPurpose and Scope -- Importance of the Cases -- Sources and Methods -- Organization -- 2. The Economics of Price Fixing -- Basic Theory -- Price Fixing Defined -- Cartel Theory -- Conditions Facilitating Collusion -- Effects of Collusion -- Cartel Histories -- 3. Anticartel Laws and Enforcement -- Market Power -- The Sherman Act -- Prosecuting Price Fixing -- Anticartel Enforcement Abroad -- International Cooperation -- 4. The Citric Acid Industry -- The Product -- Technology and Early Development -- Market Size and Growth -- The Structure of Production -- Members of the Cartel -- International Trade Patterns -- Costs of Production -- Selling Practices -- 5. The Citric Acid Conspiracy -- Triggering Events13 -- Meetings and Methods13 -- Citric Acid Price Movements -- The Role of Cargill -- The China Problem -- The Cartel Is Unmasked -- 6. Economic Impacts of the Citric Acid Cartel -- Price Effects -- Effects on Production -- Effects on International Trade -- The Customer Overcharge -- Conclusions -- 7. The World Lysine Industry -- The Product and Its Uses -- Technology of Production -- History of the Industry -- Market Size and Growth -- Structure of Supply in the 1990s -- Members of the Cartel -- International Trade and Investment -- Selling Practices -- 8. The Lysine Conspiracy -- The Price War of 1991-1992 -- Meetings and Methods -- The Cartel is Unmasked -- 9. Economic Effects of the Lysine Cartel -- Price Effects -- Production Effects -- Effects on International Trade -- Effects on Profits -- The Customer Overcharge -- Conclusions -- 10. The Global Vitamins Industry -- Origins of the Industry -- Companies -- Market Structure -- Market Size and Growth -- Trade and Location of Production -- 11. The Vitamins Conspiracies -- Formation of the Cartels -- Global Cartel Connections -- How the Conspiracies Were Organized -- 12. Effects of the Vitamins Cartel -- Price Effects -- Profits -- Customer Overcharges -- 13. U.S. Government Prosecution of the Cartels -- The Antitrust Division -- The Biggest Mole Ever Seen -- Enter the FBI -- The Grand Juries3 -- The FBI Raids -- The Lysine Guilty Pleas -- The Citric Acid Prosecutions -- Prosecution of the Vitamins Cartels -- High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Forgotten Cartel? -- Impact on Civil Cases -- Were the Fines High Enough? -- 14. Antitrust Prosecutions by Foreign Governments -- Lysine -- Citric Acid -- Vitamins -- 15. The Chicago Criminal Trial -- The Main Issues -- Pre-Trial Motions -- The Trial Opens -- Witnesses for the Prosecution -- The End Game -- The Verdict -- The Sentencing Phase -- 16. The Civil Suits -- The Federal Lysine Case -- The Federal Citric Acid Case -- The Federal Corn Sweeteners Cases -- The Vitamins Cases -- Indirect Purchasers’ Cases -- Effectiveness of Civil Antitrust Penalties -- 17. More Global Cartels -- Food-and-Feed Ingredients -- Other Global Cartels -- More Cartels to Come? -- Corporate Recidivism -- 18. The Business of Fighting Cartels -- A Boon for Law Firms -- Can the Antitrust Agencies Cope? -- Are New Laws Needed? -- Antitrust Sanctions: An Overall Appraisal -- 19. Global Price Fixing: Summing Up -- Market Structure Matters -- Escalating Antitrust Sanctions and Deterrence -- Financial Impacts of Antitrust Sanctions -- Corporate Governance Structures -- The Fate of Individual Conspirators -- The Social Costs of Global Cartels -- Antitrust Prosecutors: Methods and Reputations -- An Antitrust Tragedy -- References.

10.1007/978-1-4613-0293-3 [DOI]

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