Title: What Is Price Fixing? - TheStreet
Headings: What Is Price Fixing?
What Is Price Fixing?
What Is Price Fixing?
What Are the Types of Price Fixing?
Horizontal Price Fixing
Vertical Price Fixing
Monopolistic
Monopsonistic
Increased Prices
Reduced Prices
Output Reduction
How Does Price Fixing Happen?
Express Agreement
Implied Agreement
No Agreement
Why Is Price Fixing Illegal?

Content: For example, when companies collectively raise prices they are charging what economists call "rents." A rent is an amount of money that someone can charge not because of any value that they have added, but simply because they control access to a specific good or service. This allows the participating companies to extract money beyond any value that they've created. In a well-functioning economy this would be no problem. A company trying to charge more than its product is worth would quickly lose customers. However under a price-fixing scheme, those customers have no alternative and nowhere else to go. The market is stifled and consumers get ripped off. Or, consider companies that collude to freeze access to the market. A group of manufacturers could use their market leverage to threaten retailers across the country, pulling their products from the shelves of any store that stocks a competitor. This would effectively make sure that no one else can enter the market, preventing anyone from offering consumers a better deal.