Global Price Fixing

1. Introduction.- Purpose and Scope.- Importance of the Cases.- Sources and Methods.- Organization.- 2. The Economics of Price Fixing.- Basic Theory.- Price Fixing Defined.- Cartel Theory.- Conditions Facilitating Collusion.- Effects of Collusion.- Cartel Histories.- 3. Anticartel Laws and Enforcement.- Market Power.- The Sherman Act.- Prosecuting Price Fixing.- Anticartel Enforcement Abroad.- International Cooperation.- 4. The Citric Acid Industry.- The Product.- Technology and Early Development.- Market Size and Growth.- The Structure of Production.- Members of the Cartel.- International Trade Patterns.- Costs of Production.- Selling Practices.- 5. The Citric Acid Conspiracy.- Triggering Events13.- Meetings and Methods13.- Citric Acid Price Movements.- The Role of Cargill.- The China Problem.- The Cartel Is Unmasked.- 6. Economic Impacts of the Citric Acid Cartel.- Price Effects.- Effects on Production.- Effects on International Trade.- The Customer Overcharge.- Conclusions.- 7. The World Lysine Industry.- The Product and Its Uses.- Technology of Production.- History of the Industry.- Market Size and Growth.- Structure of Supply in the 1990s.- Members of the Cartel.- International Trade and Investment.- Selling Practices.- 8. The Lysine Conspiracy.- The Price War of 1991–1992.- Meetings and Methods.- The Cartel is Unmasked.- 9. Economic Effects of the Lysine Cartel.- Price Effects.- Production Effects.- Effects on International Trade.- Effects on Profits.- The Customer Overcharge.- Conclusions.- 10. The Global Vitamins Industry.- Origins of the Industry.- Companies.- Market Structure.- Market Size and Growth.- Trade and Location of Production.- 11. The Vitamins Conspiracies.- Formation of the Cartels.- Global Cartel Connections.- How the Conspiracies WereOrganized.- 12. Effects of the Vitamins Cartel.- Price Effects.- Profits.- Customer Overcharges.- 13. U.S. Government Prosecution of the Cartels.- The Antitrust Division.- The Biggest Mole Ever Seen.- Enter the FBI.- The Grand Juries3.- The FBI Raids.- The Lysine Guilty Pleas.- The Citric Acid Prosecutions.- Prosecution of the Vitamins Cartels.- High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Forgotten Cartel?.- Impact on Civil Cases.- Were the Fines High Enough?.- 14. Antitrust Prosecutions by Foreign Governments.- Lysine.- Citric Acid.- Vitamins.- 15. The Chicago Criminal Trial.- The Main Issues.- Pre-Trial Motions.- The Trial Opens.- Witnesses for the Prosecution.- The End Game.- The Verdict.- The Sentencing Phase.- 16. The Civil Suits.- The Federal Lysine Case.- The Federal Citric Acid Case.- The Federal Corn Sweeteners Cases.- The Vitamins Cases.- Indirect Purchasers’ Cases.- Effectiveness of Civil Antitrust Penalties.- 17. More Global Cartels.- Food-and-Feed Ingredients.- Other Global Cartels.- More Cartels to Come?.- Corporate Recidivism.- 18. The Business of Fighting Cartels.- A Boon for Law Firms.- Can the Antitrust Agencies Cope?.- Are New Laws Needed?.- Antitrust Sanctions: An Overall Appraisal.- 19. Global Price Fixing: Summing Up.- Market Structure Matters.- Escalating Antitrust Sanctions and Deterrence.- Financial Impacts of Antitrust Sanctions.- Corporate Governance Structures.- The Fate of Individual Conspirators.- The Social Costs of Global Cartels.- Antitrust Prosecutors: Methods and Reputations.- An Antitrust Tragedy.- References.