ABSTRACT
History has shown that cartelization can occur within any market where production is confined to a limited number of suppliers. Prior to the stricter enforcement of antitrust legislation in the industrialized world, corporations from the United States, Europe, and Canada regarded cartels as a reasonable means of increasing profitability in competitive international markets. Even after collusion became explicitly illegal, firms still engaged in the practice if the risks of getting caught were thought to be sufficiently low. Such was the case with the electrical transformer industry, which was briefly cartelized in the 1950s. Similarly, three executives of the Archer Daniels Midland Company (including the executive vice president) engaged in ongoing price-fixing of their food products during the 1980s, a practice that eventually caught up with them when they were prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1998.
