OREANDA-NEWS.  July 26, 2012. Cartel is an unlawful agreement (collusion) between competitors, which leads or can lead to five types of consequences that are the most dangerous for the economy. The Head of FAS Cartel Department, Alexander Kinev, made a report about the main anti-cartel methods at a workshop in Gorno-Altaisk, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.     

“Cartel is an agreement between competitors on prices, participation in tenders and auctions, market allocation, deficit creation, boycotts. This is a powerful constraint of market competition”, said Alexander Kinev.

Joining a cartel, formally independent companies form a monopoly, rejecting independent market conduct and rivalry with competitors.

“Cartels result in artificial growth of prices, absence of new products with better quality and narrowing the choice of products; absence of incentives for economic entities for development, innovations, increasing efficiency; preventing market entry of new players, market stagnation”, explained the Head of FAS Cartel Department.

“Earlier we often found written agreements with seals and signatures, then seals and signatures started disappearing from such documents, and now most of cartel arrangements are concluded orally. Therefore, indirect rather than direct evidence of cartels are becoming more and more important”, explained Alexander Kinev.

Indirect evidence indicates collateral matters in cause-and-effect or other relationship with the facts of violations (analysis of conduct of economic entities, market analysis, or mathematical expertise).