Contemporary international cartels and developing countries: economic effects and implications for competition policy

TLDR: For example, the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission have investigated over forty international cartels for illegal price fixing in the United States and Europe, but prosecutions and civil litigation in those countries have been rare as discussed by the authors.

Abstract: During the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission prosecuted over forty international cartels for illegal price fixing in the United States and Europe. On the civil litigation front, almost all of the cases involving these cartels have been filed in the United States with its treble damages provisions. In many cases, these cartels sell to markets in developing countries, but prosecutions and civil litigation in those countries have been rare. Thus, in a sense, most antitrust litigation against such cartels has been attacking the symptoms of the problem rather than attacking this worldwide phenomenon across the international front where these companies work. Yet, if the international aspects of these cartels cannot be better addressed, we run the risk, as Justice Stewart explained, that “persons doing business both in this country and abroad might be tempted to enter into anticompetitive conspiracies affecting American consumers in the expectation that the illegal profits they could safely extort abroad would offset any liability to plaintiffs at home.”1