People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. ”
—Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776
The most recent example of a cartel was between Unilever and Procter & Gamble who were found guilty of price fixing washing powder in 8 European countries. The case that was conducted by the European Commission after a tip off from Germany company, Henkel. The resulting penalty was a 315 million euros fine, split between Unilever (104m Euros) and Procter & Gamble (211m Euros)[12]
De Beers is well known for its monopoloid practices throughout the 20th century, whereby it used its dominant position to manipulate the international diamond market. The company used several methods to exercise this control over the market: Firstly, it convinced independent producers to join its single channel monopoly, it flooded the market with diamonds similar to those of producers who refused to join the cartel, and lastly, it purchased and stockpiled diamonds produced by other manufacturers in order to control prices through supply.[13]
Another example of an international cartel is the one created by the members of the Asian Racing Federation and documented in the Good Neighbor Policy signed on September 1, 2003. Other well-known examples include:
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC): As its name suggests, OPEC is organized by sovereign states. It cannot be held to antitrust enforcement in other jurisdictions by virtue of the doctrine of state immunity under public international law. However, members of the group do frequently break rank to increase production quotas.
International Match Corporation (IMCO) of Ivar Kreuger in the 1920s.
Many trade organizations, especially in industries dominated by only a few major companies, have been accused of being fronts for cartels.
A well documented, private, international cartel is the lysine cartel of 1992–95.
Anaconda Copper had a long running cartel.
Some have argued that even the suppliers of credit can form a cartel to raise the price of credit (the interest rate)[14] or gain political power