Cartel
From Economypedia.com
A cartel is a formal agreement between firms engaged in the production and sale of the same product in order to exact and share monopolistic rents. Usually involving a small number of sellers, the terms of the agreement may include points like total industry output, price fixing, allocation of territories, allocation of customers, market shares, bid rigging, division of profits and setting up of common sales agencies.
The chief objective of a cartel is to maximize the benefits of the sellers. Reduction in competition and fixation of prices helps in earning more profits for individual members involved in the agreement. However, cartels are forbidden in certain countries including USA because of the competition laws which have been implemented there.
