Module 17 2024

29/11/2024

What are trade associations? A view from the Enlightenment

'People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices'

Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations 1776

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However...

The Prohibition of anti-competitive agreements – general

Generally, any activity which results in any of the following will infringe this prohibition:

• Price-fixing, including the co-ordination of price ranges, discounts or any other element of pricing • Market partitioning such as the allocation of exclusive customer groups • Agreements on investment levels or productions quotas To be an agreement for the purposes of competition law, an agreement need not be written down. A verbal information exchange or agreement to exclude a competitor can be an infringement even if it is merely an informal “gentlemen's agreement”.

Extract from ABHI Competition Law Compliance Guidance

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