The Criminalisation of Cartels - Research Paper Example

Cartels are often dealt with by anti-competitive agreements provided in competition law because the role of competition law is primarily to intervene in the marketplace when there is a market failure or when there are problems concerning competitive practices3. It must be noted that not all systems of competition law have a uniform and consistent definition of what is considered market failure and anti-competitive; hence, the varying concerns considered in principal legal systems as well as the sanctions against violations.

Given these definitions of the cartel, it is then not difficult to see why, in present usage, people are associating the term “cartel” with ‘the more delinquent end of the spectrum of anti-competitive activity’, often suggesting notions of criminal syndicates such as ‘drug cartels’4. In competition policy and anti-trust law, the felonious aspect of cartelists activities is underscored by coupling it with adjectives like ‘hardcore’ and ‘egregious’.

It has been pointed out, for instance, that price fixing is not too different from theft on both moral and practical levels as the practice effectively results in stealing from consumers5. This view of cartels, whilst having only recently taken root in Europe and other nations, is actually more than a century-old in North American consciousness. Canada and the United States of America have taken on a more aggressive approach to prosecuting cartels within their jurisdictions since 1889 (with the Federal Competition Act) and 1890 (with the Sherman Act), respectively.

  The US anti-competition policies, specifically, has been recognised as having one of the most impressive records in cartel enforcement.  Since its promulgation of the Sherman Act in 1890, criminal sanctions have been increased in subsequent years in order to deter cartel formation and activities in the US.