Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Cartel definition

What does Cartel mean? In legal practice, a cartel is coordination between competing undertakings to restrict competition, typically price-fixing, rigged bids (collusive tenders), limiting output or setting quotas, or sharing/dividing markets by allocating customers, suppliers, territories or lines of trade. It may take the form of an agreement, decision or concerted practice, including exchanges of commercially sensitive information that align market behaviour. In UK civil competition law this conduct infringes the Chapter I prohibition in the Competition Act 1998; in Ireland it infringes section 4 of the Competition Act 2002 and, where applicable, Article 101 TFEU. The term is a descriptive label...

UK criminal cartel offence pre‑April 2014: dishonesty requirement, OFT investigation powers, penalties, leniency/immunity, enforcement activity and reform proposals (archived)

Published by a LexisNexis Competition expert

Practice notes

ARCHIVED –

This archived practice note sets out information on the criminal Cartel offence as it stood before the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2014 came into force on 1 April 2014. It is no longer updated.

The offence criminalises individuals who take part in Cartel conduct in the UK. Previously, liability depended on the person having dishonestly entered into any of the following arrangements:

fixing prices
limiting output
dividing markets or customers
rigging bids

The activity must relate to products or services in the UK and involve individuals at competing firms.

The offence can be made out even where the scheme is never put into effect or is unsuccessful. The issue is whether the individual agreed to engage in cartel behaviour (for example, to fix prices) and did so dishonestly; no competition law assessment is required.

A person investigated under the offence who does not live in the UK may be extradited to the UK to stand trial. The criminal cartel offence was altered on 1 April 2014, including the removal...

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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