I’m watching MTV right now and they are interviewing 2 guys from the Jounieh Pubs committee discussing the world record they’re trying break for the longest bar in the world. Anyway they were talking about the benefits of having a committee for the pubs in Jounieh and one of the things they’re proud of is that they’ve all agreed to unify prices… price fixing. In most parts of the world that would be considered illegal and yet here the guy was proudly admitting to it on TV. Here is the definition of price fixing on Wikipedia:
Price fixing is an agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given level by controlling supply and demand. The group of market makers involved in price fixing is sometimes referred to as a cartel.
The intent of price fixing may be to push the price of a product as high as possible, leading to profits for all sellers but may also have the goal to fix, peg, discount, or stabilize prices. The defining characteristic of price fixing is any agreement regarding price, whether expressed or implied.
Price fixing requires a conspiracy between sellers or buyers. The purpose is to coordinate pricing for mutual benefit of the traders.
That’s not cool.