Editing Decartelization (section)

'''Decartelization''' is the transition of a national economy from [[monopoly]] control by groups of large businesses, known as [[cartel]]s, to a [[free market]] economy. This change rarely arises naturally, and is generally the result of regulation by a governing body with the authority to decide what structures are permissible.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.un.org/sites/archives.un.org/files/files/Finding |title=Summary of AG-004 Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) (1955-present) |publisher=United Nations Archives and Management Section |date=22 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710230141/https://archives.un.org/sites/archives.un.org/files/files/Finding%20Aids/2015_Finding_Aids/AG-004.pdf |archive-date=2017-07-10 |access-date=August 14, 2022}}</ref>

A modern example of decartelization is the economic restructuring of [[Germany]] after the fall of the [[Third Reich]] in 1945.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Wollheim Memorial |url=http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/entflechtung_der_ig_farben_en |title=The Decartelization of I.G. Farben after 1945 |access-date=14 August 2022}}</ref>
 
To truly understand the term "decartelization" requires familiarity with the term "cartel".<ref>{{cite web |title=HCC Helps Public Officials to Detect Cartels in Public Procurement Tenders |date=2015-02-18<!-- from article metadata --> |agency=[[European Commission]] |url=https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/multisite/ecn-brief/en/content/hcc-helps-public-officials-detect-cartels-public-procurement-tenders |access-date=2022-08-14 |archive-date=2021-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026065047/https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/multisite/ecn-brief/en/content/hcc-helps-public-officials-detect-cartels-public-procurement-tenders |url-status=dead }}</ref> A cartel is a formal (explicit) agreement among firms. Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry ([[oligopoly]]), where there are a small number of sellers, and usually involve homogeneous products (see [[Homogeneity and heterogeneity]]). Cartel members may agree on such matters as [[price fixing]], total [[Industry (economics)|industry]] output, [[market share]]s, allocation of customers, allocation of [[Sales territory|territories]], [[bid rigging]], establishment of common sales agencies ([[sales agents]]), and the [[division of property]] or [[profit (accounting)|profit]]s or combination of these. The aim of such collusion is to increase individual member's profits by reducing competition. [[Competition law]]s forbid cartels.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284413/oft435.pdf |title=Cartels and the Competition Act 1998: A guide for purchasers |location=United Kingdom |agency=[[Office of Fair Trading]] |access-date=14 August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Competition policy: Antitrust |author=European Commission |url=http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/overview_en.html |access-date=14 August 2022 |quote=Article 101 [of the [[Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union]]] prohibits anti-competitive agreements between two or more independent market operators. Article 102 prohibits abusive behaviour by companies holding a dominant position on any given market.}}</ref> Identifying and breaking up cartels is an important part of competition policy in most countries, although proving the existence of a cartel is rarely easy, as firms are usually not so careless as to put agreements to [[collude]] on paper.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Determinants of Cartel Duration |first1=Margaret C. |last1=Levenstein |first2=Valerie Y. |last2=Suslow |journal=Journal of Law and Economics |year=2011 |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=455–492 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/657660 
|doi=10.1086/657660 |jstor=10.1086/657660 |publisher=University of Chicago Press|hdl=2027.42/78004 |s2cid=154675331 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>