When they were discovered in 1999, the 16 vitamins cartels were probably the largest, most harmful, and harshest sanctioned international cartels of the late 20th century. Still today, the vitamins cartels are cited by antitrust authorities as the outstanding example of an enforcement action...

This article seeks to answer a fundamental antitrust question: does crime pay? Do the current overall levels of U.S. cartel sanctions adequately discourage firms from engaging in illegal collusion? Seven years ago our research showed that the unfortunate answer was clearly that, yes, criminal...

For criminal violations of the Sherman Act, although guided by federal sentencing guidelines, U.S. Department of Justice has great latitude in recommending corporate cartel fines to the federal courts, and its recommendations are nearly always determinative. In this paper, we analyze the...

The following charts illustrate the global size and economic impacts of the modern international cartel movement and the enforcement responses of the world's antitrust authorities and national courts. The sample encompasses 640 private hard-core cartels that were subject to government or private...

Using a sample of modern international cartels, we analyze the level and determinants of cartel sanctions imposed on the participants of these cartels in a number of antitrust jurisdictions. There is empirical evidence suggesting that gains from collusive conduct outweigh its costs represented...

When they were discovered in 1999, the 16 vitamins cartels were probably the largest, most harmful, and harshest sanctioned international cartels of the late 20th century. Still today, the vitamins cartels are cited by antitrust authorities as the outstanding example of an enforcement action...

This Article examines whether the current penalties in the United States Sentencing Guidelines are set at the appropriate levels to deter illegal price fixing cartels optimally. The authors analyze two data sets to determine how high on average cartels raise prices. The first consists of every...

This chapter examines how high cartels raise prices on average and what this should mean for the current criminal fine levels in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. We utilize two distinct data sets (economic and other studies, and verdicts in final cartel cases) and find that cartels have caused...

Expert opinion of antitrust practitioners is divided as to whether U.S. courts hand down more severe sentences on foreigners guilty of criminal price fixing compared to U.S. cartelists. The opinions in support of discrimination appear to be based on a small number of sentences imposed in quite...

Our survey identified about 200 serious social-science studies of cartels which contained 674 observations of average overcharges. Our primary finding is that the median cartel overcharge for all types of cartels over all time periods has been 25%; 17-19% for domestic cartels, and 30-33% for...